sabots in a 7.62x39??

[sniper69]

I saw an ad in shotgun news for sabots for 30 caliber, where you put in the sabot and a 22 bullet. They say it will leave the rifle at about 4000fps. Has anyone tried these in 7.62x39? I have used sabots in 30-06 and they were fun to shoot and all that other stuff. Any input would be great. Thanks!

[shootinhks]

I was coming in here to post the same question. Then you could have the best of all worlds......123 gr SP, 62 gr ss109, all 223 hps and SP, and of course the 545 air pockets. All this and I assume more velocity. I am pretty sure it would feed. Would it have enough recoil to eject and would the crimp hold during feeding? What kind of velocity would you get?

[sniper69]

I talked to a friend who reloads, and he said the only thing to be careful of is the fact that AK bullets are a .311 and regular 30 cal is .308. Also he suggested that unless A company already has reloading data for 7.62x39 with sabots that i would need to work a couple rounds for each different powder weight I was going to use. Also he said to start low and work up, because otherwise I could hurt myself with high barrel pressures. I ???? him some more, and he said when he worked up some rounds (for a different caliber)he went to the range with 20 plastics bags with 2 rounds in each bag. He said it was time consuming but rewarding in the end. Has anyone else tried sabots and have any reload data for the 7.62x 39 they want to share?

BTW he also said the sabots might fit differently than regular bullets to take up the .308 to .311 difference.

[wlynn5]

I would make a few empty loads a see what beiing fed out of the mag does to the nylon sabots. I have shot .308 sabots but only on a bolt gun not a semi-auto.

[JA]

Did this 15 years ago with no problems feeding but they just didn't have enough power to work the action of a SKS so I gave up. The front of a sabot is tapered so they slide right into the chamber from the magazine. They might function in a AK as the E.G. plastic core ammo bullets weigh almost the same as the sabot/55gr bullet. This ammo will function in a AK but it will not in a SKS.

[shootinhks]

Sounds good to me, but I wont start reloading for 5 years, so maybe someone else can be the guinne pigs. Is an SKS more recoil operated? That would explain the above post.

[sniper69]

I am not sure, but I do know that my SKS won't shoot some chezckslovakian ammo I have, but only half the time. But my AK shoots it fine. Almost thought I had a bunch of ammo with hard primers, but now think that the AK just strikes them harder or better. Later in the year I might get some sabot rounds going, when I do I will post results. I just got to get my reloading stuff back in order again. It will be fun to load some up and shoot them.