Trail Boss powder

[handyman77]

anyone have any thoughts good or bad??

[Bullshop]

45 Colt, 250gn Lyman 454190, 5.8gn TB = contentment

[Chilmonty]

I use it in my .357 Ruger Vaquero's with a 158gr SWC, excellent powder designed primarily for cowboy action, low velocity shooting.
Only downside is its a little dirtier than most smokeless. JMO

[nekshot]

I love it! You can't overfill and if going real slow is your bag this is the easiest stuff I found to go real slow. A little dirty but thats shooting, and it lasts forever. I think mine is growing in the container it seems like you don't use as much of this as other powder. I know thats in my head but it is economical for me and fool proof.
nekshot

[handyman77]

nekshot---thanx for the input---I think I will give it a try---HM77

[uscra112]

Tried it in my .38. Went back to Bullseye pretty quickly. If the famine goes on long enough that TB is all I have left, I'll use it. If you happen to live in SE Ohio, I'll gladly trade for Red Dot, or Bullseye on a pound-for-pound basis. I have 3/4 of the can left.

[fouronesix]

anyone have any thoughts good or bad??

Great powder for some purposes- like light charges in high expansion ratio applications (45 ACP, 38 SPL and the like) and one of the safest for many purposes because of the difficulty in double charging. Just don't confuse it with slow, low pressure or low energy- it is simply bulky. For me it meters out of a measure more accurately than any other powder because of its low density and easily cut flakes. It is very fast so treat it like a super fluffy Bullseye or 700X type powder and you will be happy with results.

[uscra112]

Fast it is, but it is also quite low energy per unit weight. Hence you can get to diminishing returns rather early on the charge ladder, (i.e. more powder gets you more peak pressure but less and less velocity increase).

[sthwestvictoria]

Fast it is, but it is also quite low energy per unit weight. Hence you can get to diminishing returns rather early on the charge ladder, (i.e. more powder gets you more peak pressure but less and less velocity increase).

Exactly. I tried in in the .308 and 30/30 but only really got any useful accuracy with low weight projectiles and low Trail Boss loads. For example the Lee TL-314-90-SWC and 7.0grains of Trail Boss goes to 1.5-2" at 50metres in the Win 1894 for me.
http://castboolits.gunloads.com/show...ght=trail+boss

I know some people have done it but I couldn't do much with Trail Boss and the 150grain or 170grain .30 molds.

I am getting some groups with light loads of Trail Boss and the plain base pistol boolits in the 35 whelen:
http://castboolits.gunloads.com/show...38-357-boolits

[nekshot]

yup, the originater of this was for SLOW speed. Also foolproof overcharging situations. Beware of the desire to use any other way, as a BP substitude or the like. Preassure as said will sneak up on you.

[jethunter]

TB works really well for subsonic rifle loads using heavy-ish bullets. Gives good case fill compared to other powders used in subsonic or reduced loads.

One thing about TB to be careful of is that it tends to pressure spike hard when it's compressed.

[wallenba]

It has a niche. It can safely put a shot downrange in a cartridge you can't find load data for. The IMR Trail Boss formula is simple, easy to follow. Just DON'T compress it. Not much terminal energy in it, and you only get 9 oz. in a bottle,but it's low density will give good case capacity though, and nearly impossible to double charge without noticing.

[joec]

I love the stuff in my 45 Colts with 250-255 gr cast and 45-70 with 405 gr cast. Low recoil, pretty accurate and easy to use and meters well for me using Lee Pro Disk system.

[uscra112]

The more I work with Red Dot for these light loads, the less I see Trail Boss as being useful. It occurs to me that it may only exist because Hodgdon needed something in their line to compete with Red Dot for cowboy loads. Marketing, marketing, marketing.

[Spawn-Inc]

i like it for my 500 mag with 440gr bullets, feels like a 9mm at most. i'm still not over my flinch with the 500 yet, so at least with this i can focus on trigger control and not break my wrists.

[ultramag]

I've had a lot of fun playing with Trail Boss in my .44M and .454 Casull revolvers for some lighter practice type cast loads. It definitely has it's place and serves a purpose IMO. Also, as mentioned already it would sure be handy to have around for something you may want to load someday but can't find data for. Glad I got turned onto it overall.

[JTknives]

It's AMAZING powder. It's the powder I would pick if I could onley have one powder. I load 75grs in my .700 *** and push a 1150gr boolit to 1200 fps. Very mild load.

[Artful]

Due to it's bulkiness, it does better at subsonic loads then reddot in larger rifle cases for subsonic loads.

[texassako]

I figured it was worth a try since it allowed me to mess around with loads while conserving other, out of stock, powders. I have grown to like it in some old milsurps that I don't really need or want a full power load. I have a lot loaded up to try in .38/.357, but have not been able to find time for those yet. I also noticed it works well with the Lee dippers since minor changes in volume barely change the charge weight. My recent reading material has been old reloading books like Phil Sharpe's book, and it almost sounds like a reinvention of the old bulk powders from the early days of smokeless powders.

[jhickdog]

I use it in my 38/55 for 25 yard indoor competition. I use 6 grains behind a 255 grain fn boolit. It shoots very well.