Have you ever read the book Point of Impact by Stephen Hunter? It’s the start of the Bob Lee Swagger series, and a good portion of the novel focuses on a conspiracy and the use of a sabot in one of Bob’s rifles to frame him. I always thought that was just literary fiction. Sure, sabot rounds exist for things like the .50 BMG, but could a fairly small rifle round use a sabot design? Apparently so, and the Remington Accelerator series proved it possible.
The Remington Accelerator was a type of ammo that premiered in 1977. These were a series of sabot rounds designed for the most popular hunting cartridges of the era. The Accelerator series used the same sabot principle used in Point of Impact: you could shoot a smaller projectile from a larger bore by wrapping that smaller projectile in a sabot.
The Remington Accelerator – An In-Depth Look
The Remington Accelerator series used a .224-inch (or 5.7 mm) projectile, typically a 55-grain soft point round. The sabot was a single-finger plastic design that would increase the overall diameter of the projectile to match the bore of the larger caliber rifle.
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Remington produced the Accelerator series in .30-06, .308 Winchester, and .30-30 Winchester. Using super small projectiles behind .30 caliber cartridges allowed for some extreme velocities. The .30-06 version could reportedly break 4,000 FPS. The .308 and .30-30 were slower at 3,770 FPS and 3,400 FPS, respectively.
The way a sabot works is simple. When the round was fired, the sabot engaged the rifling, and when the projectile exited the barrel, the sabot fell away. The sabot was designed to stabilize the smaller round inside the barrel.
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But Why?
The Accelerator series was designed to allow a hunter to replicate .22-250 or .222 Remington performance from a rifle they already owned. Back then, people weren’t as quick to just buy a new gun, and guns were more expensive in this era. Remington intended the Accelerator series to allow hunters with deer rifles to hunt varmints without absolutely exploding them.
The Accelerator series promised to make your deer gun into a dual-use design. It seemed like an attractive proposition: one rifle, one scope, two purposes. Even in the era of the affordable Savage 110, why didn’t the Accelerator series stick around?
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The End of the Accelerator
Accuracy. That was the number one complaint. Production did seem to last several years. In 1980, the .30-30 premiered, three years after the initial .30-06 introduction. The problem was that the sabot doesn’t interface with the rifling as well as a standard projectile would. This could fail to stabilize the bullet and result in tumbling and wobbling, which would result in poor accuracy.
If you’re hunting varmints, accuracy matters. The small targets are already hard to hit, so if you aren’t punching a tiny group, you aren’t likely to hit a tiny target. This wasn’t always the case; it may have depended on a variety of factors, including rifle quality.
It also likely depended on the varmint you were hunting. A shot at a bobcat, a coyote, or even a groundhog is a lot easier to make than a shot on a prairie dog or a rabbit. You’re also a bit closer with coyotes, rabbits, and groundhogs.
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I don’t imagine these cartridges fed well in semi-autos, and semi-auto hunting rifles were getting popular in this era, with options from Remington, Winchester, and Browning achieving popularity. The plastic sabots are also going to foul your barrel, which isn’t a big deal if you don’t mind cleaning the bore.
Still, they didn’t achieve enough popularity, and Remington eliminated the Accelerator lineup. If you look around, you can find boxes for sale for anywhere from $90 to $150 for a 20-round box.
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A Modern Accelerator
I don’t think there is a big market for these cartridges these days. If you own a .30-06, you probably own an AR and can shoot all the varmints you want. However, I can’t help but think that sabot technology and design have improved, and a modern Accelerator could work. Is anyone brave enough to give it a try?
