Savage Loads: Why Not Make It Easy?
There is nothing particularly unique about load development in the Savage that is not applicable to all other inlines on the market today. I'm here to tell you that very, very few muzzleloaders today have achieved sub- 1.5 in. 100 yard groups. Certainly, it is not exactly the norm with thin "sporter" profile centerfire rifles either. It is also all the accuracy you can really use on big game out to 200 yards in the field. Beyond that, it is just tinkering.
"Sweet spots" are over-rated in muzzleloading. To free-float a barrel in search of repeatable barrel harmonics, then to hang a thimble and ramrod from it would be viewed as a bit nutty with most rifles-- yet, that is the way most muzzleloaders are used.
Triple 7 burns hotter than black powder, and inflicts more damage on sabots as a result. So do Savage powders.
Weighing T7 shrinks groups-- so does weighing Savage powders.
Super-hot charges of T 7 are not as reliable as moderate loads; nor are hot charges of Savage recommended powders.
Hot barreled T 7 guns soften sabots, more pronounced in hot weather. Same way with the Savage. The Savage needs more barrel cooling because you do not spitpatch between shots, and very clean burning powders like N110 leave hot metal in direct contact with sabots-- there is no significant insulation or isolation of the sabot by fouling crud as there is with Pyrodex or T7.
To spin a bullet, there are only two primary factors-- rate of twist and muzzle velocity. As most folks seek hunting-strength loads, the barrel's rate of twist is the more important of the two. Over-spinning a bullet is not very important (or visible) unless you are shooting varmints at long ranges.
Primer strength is not a big issue, just that generally the hotter the primer the more reliable and the more accurate. The same is true when shooting T 7 pellets. Large bore pistol primers in a .44 RemMag cartridge exist because a small bore primer is less powerful, and has reliability and accuracy issues.
A sabot is a miraculous thing. Take a butane lighter, and hold the flame beneath sabot petals. The sabot quickly softens, catches on fire, and continues to burn. All this, starting with no preheating and no pressure of consequence. Imagine what that sabot must address inside a muzzleloading barrel?
An accurate-shooting muzzleloading barrel must be of closer tolerances than a breechloading rifle barrel for the simple reason that a bullet in a breechloader is oversized. After it is fired and goes past any freebore, it is hot swaged into the rifling at great pressure. Muzzleloaders do not have the ability to hotswage and deeply engrave greatly oversized projectiles. A common complaint is "XXXXX" is hard to load. The problem is varying barrel tolerances from brand to brand that makes it impossible to produce a sabot to fit all barrels the same. Anything beyond concentric land-to-land rifling dimensions is engraving the sabot, and we have to do it by hand.
Let's assume that you have an assembled sabot / bullet combination that loads firmly, yet smoothly, and groups well. Increase the OD of that combination by just one and one half thousandths concentrically from the center-- a .003" OD difference. You will not be able to load that saboted bullet easily, if at all. It is a ramrod bender.
With the Savage, all the hard work has already been done for you. Using 42 gr. N110 and a 250 XTP (MMP short black sabot), a similar charge of SR-4759 and the same 250 XTP or 44 gr. 5744, most all 10ML-II's shoot well. Same with 41-44 grains of 5744 and a 250 or 300 XTP, or a 300 gr. SST with the right MMP sabot. Same with a 250 or 300 gr. Barnes MZ-Expander. It is just that easy.
These combinations are working beautifully for literally thousands of 10ML-II shooters across the country right now, and have been. All of them are quite capable of harvesting any whitetail as far as the shooter can accurately place a shot.
With so very, very FEW muzzleloading hunters taking animals past 175 yards (all these loads are competent 185 yard + 6" MPBR combinations) it makes so very little sense to sacrifice reliability, repeatability, accuracy, by playing with other stuff.
It is fun to do so, of course, but quite needless for most. And, it is an easy way to get frustrated when you use a new 10ML-II for the first time. Moderate charges of powder in current MMP sabots in cool weather is just smart, and hassle-free. If you are going to hunt in 100 degree weather, then of course you need to confirm your rifle under those same conditions. I don't, and I can't say I enjoy mowing the lawn when it is in the hundreds-- much less tearing holes in paper for amusement.
If equal effort was spent learning trajectories and windage rather than goofing around with loads, we would all have a far greater field range if that really is the goal-- rather than playing with powder.
Myself included!
© August, 2005 by Randy Wakeman
