B.R.I. was originally formed in Santa Cruz, CA, in about 1980-85.
The owner used a classic sabot design, around 450-500 grains, cast superhard.
The sabot I shot out of a scoped Remington shotgun looked like the one on the left.
Box looks like this:
Few folks in Alaska on this forum still have em, and hoard them for bears.
Vern also made some others:
Here are some of the sabots he offered for sale:
http://www.thedealershowroom.com/page/page/1275214.htm
I think the patent was sold to Winchester, but, they are now focusing on offering their new slug, similar to
the Barnes X.
Here's a link to some of em, and, they even give credit to the original company, BRI, in the name:
http://images.google.com/imgres?img....R.I.+Shotgun+sabot&gbv=2&hl=en&safe=off&sa=G
This review is about the accuracy most get with the slugs:
Good Slugs for the Money, January 8, 2008
By Steve21009 from Maryland
"I have used 12 gauge BRI sabot slugs for several years, and see no reason to try any others. At 50 yards, I can shoot a 2" group all day long and could probably do better if I concentrated a little more. On a very windy day, I have seen people shoot 3-4" groups at 100 yards with these, so on a calm day I suspect that tighter groups could be achieved.
I have shot about a half dozen deer with this slug, and they have always done the job very well. I've never been able to recover a slug, so cannot comment on mushrooming or expansion. My guess is, with a slug this heavy, and with a diameter of .50", expansion is not really needed to do the job.
Another reason I have liked them is that for years they have been among the more reasonably-priced of all the sabot slugs out there.
The recoil is stout, but not unbearable. There are plenty of loads available with higher velocity, but those hot loads will punish your shoulder, with a likely negative effect on accuracy.
If you want a slug that you can almost afford, that doesn't kill your shoulder on the range, and is very accurate, I don't think you can do much better than this."
We tested the rounds at higher velocities the testing was intended to find out at what velocity the Sabot was most accurate. Benching full house shotgun sabots is NOT the most fun I've had shooting...
The full house loads were supposed to be in the 1800-1900 fps range. That would put a 440 grain, .50" caliber sabot, cast very hard, at Energy of 3,166 foot-pounds for a 440 grain bullet at 1800 fps. At 1900 fps Energy of 3,528 foot-pounds for a 440 grain bullet at 1900 fps.
It's VERY hard to slow down a slug weighing that much, and, I suspect that even if it didn't go through, you'd know you got hit with it.
Plus, the sabots were VERY accurate, suitable as a Politically Correct alternative to a high powered rifle. The Sabot could easily be tuned to penetrate armour, with no one being the wiser. Us a monometal, super hard material, turned on a lathe, and, you would have armour piercing and politically correct...