Trail boss shortage

[jonp]

Do the deal and buy some Shooters World Buffalo Rifle.

[303Guy]

303guy,

Have you tried Unique for reduced loads in your Brit? If so, how was your experience with it?

Many years ago I used an equivalent. It seemed about right for cast but my boolits were undersize so accuracy was poor. I had read that fluffed out cotton wool filler was in order and so that's what I did. It didn't seem to do any harm and I never compared it to not using the filler. Powder positioner really. At that time I did not know that cotton wool can ignite and set the dry grass on fire. Later testing showed that it will indeed ignite under certain conditions but not the way I was using it. I opted not to go with unique or equivalent purely due to its compact nature but the appeal remains.

I should mention that when loading 3grs of clays, I do use a small quantity of Dacron fluffed up to hold the powder against the primer. I often fire straight down and don't like the idea of the powder lying on the boolit so far away from the primer. Never use anything that takes up case volume with these powders, ie, fillers. I don't see Dacron as a filler as it takes up almost zero volume. However, it is said not to use anything at all so best keep to that advice. Besides, 13gr is a whole nuther ball game. I'm talking 3gr. 13gr will fill the case a fair bit and not pose the distance from primer issue.

[Cargo]

Many years ago I used an equivalent. It seemed about right for cast but my boolits were undersize so accuracy was poor. I had read that fluffed out cotton wool filler was in order and so that's what I did. It didn't seem to do any harm and I never compared it to not using the filler. Powder positioner really. At that time I did not know that cotton wool can ignite and set the dry grass on fire. Later testing showed that it will indeed ignite under certain conditions but not the way I was using it. I opted not to go with unique or equivalent purely due to its compact nature but the appeal remains.

Thanks for the info. I love the old Enfields and have owned several over the years. I slowly sold them off as ammo became impossible to find but now that I've started reloading another might be in my future.

[Black Powder Bill]

IMPO unless the trade is an item you can use and use often. I'd keep the TB.

Cash talks now days

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[dverna]

I am not a fan of mystery powders, and have no use for TB. If it were me, I would sell the TB and use the cash to buy something else.

But if I had used the mystery powder and it worked well, I would trade 5 lbs for 40 lbs without any hesitation. I have never found a powder that cannot be substituted. BTW, one reason I saw no need to even try TB.

My favorite rifle powder is Varget....I paid well over $200 to get an 8# jug during the last shortage. I would trade it in a heartbeat for 4 cases of Promo, and I already have 6 cases of Promo.

Large quantities of good powder trump small quantities of great powder.

[NyFirefighter357]

There’s a reason I bought a case of Promo. There are better powders but Promo will do it all. For those not aware Promo is Red Dot in large quantities.

I didn't know, thank you. I found this on Alliant's site "Promo has the same burn speed as Red Dot, but is more dense, thus requiring a smaller bushing to obtain the same charge weight. Principal Purpose: Light and standard 12 ga target loads."

[dragon813gt]

Charge weights are exactly the same. They’re talking about shotgun reloading bushings. It won’t be an issue for metallic reloading.

[uscra112]

Didn't know that about Promo. I rather like the bulkiness of Red Dot. I've got more than enough RD to last me out, so I guess I won't buy any Promo for comparison.

[303Guy]

Before any of you fella's rush out and load up 13grs of Red Dot or the equivalent, I've just done that. Maybe the powder equivalent isn't quite so equivalent. I loaded 13gr of AS30N (Clays) under a 150gr Hornaday spire point. It came out the barrel just fine. The recoil was quite sharp but not great and it wasn't too noisy. This powder is normally very dirty but not this time. Very clean in fact.

[jonp]

There’s a reason I bought a case of Promo. There are better powders but Promo will do it all. For those not aware Promo is Red Dot in large quantities.

I found that out from this forum and have several kegs bought during cheaper time on the shelf. I use it in every pistol caliber i have and several rifles

[dragon813gt]

Before any of you fella's rush out and load up 13grs of Red Dot or the equivalent

You didn’t load up a Red Dot equivalent. You loaded up a Clays equivalent. Red Dot and Clays are not the same powder. They may have the same properties but loads are different. Unless the powder manufacturer tells you it’s the same powder, like Red Dot/Promo or W231/HP-38, you cant assume they are the same.

Not saying this is what you did. Putting it out there for new reloaders so they don’t make mistakes. There’s a reason surplus powder tells you to use “X” powder data but to work up the load. It’s because the powders are different.

[uscra112]

Clays and Red Dot are pretty darned close, Karen.

[303Guy]

You didn’t load up a Red Dot equivalent. You loaded up a Clays equivalent. Red Dot and Clays are not the same powder. They may have the same properties but loads are different. Unless the powder manufacturer tells you it’s the same powder, like Red Dot/Promo or W231/HP-38, you cant assume they are the same.

Not saying this is what you did. Putting it out there for new reloaders so they don’t make mistakes. There’s a reason surplus powder tells you to use “X” powder data but to work up the load. It’s because the powders are different.

There's something else to consider and that is that one rifle is not equivalent to another either. This rifle is a two-groove Brit. That makes a big difference. The starting load had fairly mild pressure but there is still signs of bullet distortion caused by the swaging down of the bullet from .312 to .303 while under stiff acceleration.

If I didn't have the means of recovering the fired bullet as readily as I do so as to see what was going on, I would have loaded up some test rounds and been left wondering why the groups were so poor.



I've just confirmed that it is the two-groove bore that raised the pressure and distorted the bullet. The five-groove is just fine and pressure is where one would expect.

[uscra112]

Neat. What's your bullet trap medium?

[303Guy]

Rubber grounds. I compact it in a steel tube within an outer steel tube and fire down into through a tube.

[uscra112]

Ditto, but my setup isn't nearly as easy to retrieve the bullet from as yours. 55 gallon drum on its' side as target backstop. I think I'm going to copy your setup for testing. Very clever! Now I see why you said that about shooting straight down.

[303Guy]

This thing contains the muzzle blast too. I weighted the lid down because it would jump too much. I seal the barrel with a rag before firing to keep the blast in. It has some tricks on the inside but I couldn't find the photo's. I'll look again, otherwise I can take new photo's.

Found them. Perhaps I should open a thread in special projects and post all the photo's there.

[uscra112]

Yes - start a new thread under Special Projects. I'm sure I'm not the only one who'd want to make a copy.

[Black Powder Bill]

Powder components shortage , it's only a shortage if they don't have it.

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[Tripplebeards]

I grabbed the last two at the LGS today with my 3rd pound of varget. I have not seen trail boss available at my local gun shop for the last couple years and imo it was cheap enough so I figured I better snag it up.



I love both these powders for cast!