What is a SABOT round?
A. A Sabot round (pronounced sah-bow’) from the French for “shoe” is simply a cartridge that utilizes a smaller than bore diameter projectile held in a bore diameter sleeve. The use of this technique allows higher velocities than normal since the projectile is much lighter than the round’s standard projectile and it still has a large base area for the propellant gases to push against. It also provides ballistic advantages over simply using a very light weight bore diameter projectile since the smaller diameter projectile will have a better ballistic coefficient and sectional density for a given weight. The most common commercial uses of this concept are in the Remington Accelerator rounds which fire a 50gr – 55 gr .22 caliber bullet from some common .30 caliber rounds and the new saboted 12 gauge slugs which fire a nominal .45 caliber projectile of about an ounce in weight which give better ballistics that a conventional shotgun slug.
