The thing that peaked my interest in the first place was the twist rate of the bore. The 1-26 twist should work very for stabilization of the longer bullets. Basically I really only shoot .458 bullets for elk hunting or even deer. I like the thought of shooting actual rifle bullets instead of handgun bullets. The fact that I am shooting these bullets at 1950 fps. seems natural to shoot a rifle bullet. The second thing I considered was the sabot. The Knight/MMP Grey sabot is heavier and can with stand much more pressure than the thinner .458/50 cal. sabots. Then of course since the rifle is so darn accurate with just about any powder charge or projectile - including heavy loads of T7, it just seems natural.
One other option if you so choose to do so is to shoot the bigger .475 bullets in a Knight Maroon sabot. I guess if I were hunting elk, moose, and big bear or even big cats a high percentage of the time the 52 would really be a good rifle. You can run the powder up to 150 grains of loose if needed but I will pass on that for now.
One other thing that should be thought about is BH 209. In the 52 with heavy bullets - that would up your velocity 150-200 fps with the same weight powder charge.
It was a good day shooting even though shooting 100 yards at a near 3" target does not seem like a problem at all anymore. This fall after harvest I will be able to shoot more at the farm and much longer distances. That will certainly increase the challenge.
I did shoot two set-ups of clay birds this morning and then worked on some bird chips...
