Many black powder shooters have encountered saboted bullets that just did not want to be pushed down the barrel. Often the cause is not the bullet, sabot, or gun barrel as is often blamed, but instead is the loading tip being used on the ramrod. What happens is the loading tip is too wide and/or deep to contact the bullet on its shoulder, instead it fits around the bullet, wedging itself against the sabot.
When the loading tip is wedged between the bullet and sabot the sabot will be mashed hard against the rifleing, greatly increasing the amount of force required to seat the bullet.
To prevent this condition select a loading tip that contacts the shoulder of your bullet without touching either the bullet tip or the sabot. Thompson Center, CVA, Hornady and Traditions all make loading tips in different styles to fit just about any bullet. You may need to own more then one type of tip if you plan on trying a variety of bullets in your gun. Selecting the proper tip then becomes easy as you can hand fit each tip to the bullet before loading your rifle.
