Trail boss options

[armednfree]

I'm looking at a Lee 215 grain .429 in my 44 mag with Trail Boss. Also a 230 grain Lee TL with Trail Boss in a 45 colt. Both will be tumble lubed.

I spoke to a guy that uses a spent 45acp case, soldered to a piece of copper wire, as a dipper, he doesn't know how much powder he's dipping. Does that seem right?

Input, Ideas Your experiences?

[jmort]

Here is MFG way to work up loads
http://www.imrpowder.com/PDF/Trail-Boss-data.pdf

[quilbilly]

Sounds about right as long as the powder is not touching the boolit. If the TB is compressed at all, strange things happen pressure wise. After using a 45 acp case as a measure, I would measure the distance from the powder to the base of the boolit in the 45 LC. I used a full 45-70 case when loading my 338 WM with TB. It was a perfect 95% loading and I could just hear the powder shake inside the case after loading. That load shot well but was just 200 fps less than what I needed at the time so switch to a different powder.

[bigboredad]

I would follow the above advice to the letter and you will have a great time and have some great loads

[Lefty SRH]

Great thread, I have some Trail Boss and I've been wanting to play around with it....

[armednfree]

What kind of accuracy are you guys getting in 44 mag and 45 colt with Trail Boss? My issue is my hands. I had carpel tunnel syndrome for many years and had surgery 18 months ago. I lost about 30% of my grip strength in my right hand by neuropathy, both from the carpel tunnel and diabetes.

I stepped away from the big bores years ago because of that. I shot a lot of autos and 38's. Now I'm getting back into it but I need a low load to practice with. My experience with low loads in both rounds is not good, and I'm looking to get a good load on both at about 800 fps. I have about 100 44 special cases that I had loaded with Bluedot and a 214 grain boolit, very accurate. I would rather use the magnum case because I have a whole bunch of them.

So if I take a case and cut it down to where the bullet ends that would be a 100% charge. Then if I drill out the primer pocket I can cut disks out of match book covers and reduce the load from there. If I need to change just push the disks out and change the number. Seems simple enough. Even after I turn off the rim I should be able to see the head stamp so I know which is which.

[Lefty SRH]

Armednfree, a friend has played with TB in his 45 colt and has had great success, both Cimarron and Ruger BH. I can't give you any details but he was happy with accuracy.

[bigboredad]

in .45 you can get 750-850 depending on boolit weight and perhaps more depending on your gun. with having had carpel tunnel it sounds like you would greatly benefit from trail boss

[sthwestvictoria]

This is a link to the ADI rifle loading information for Trail Boss - proudly made here in Australia!

http://www.thalesgroup.com/Countries/Australia/Documents/Trail_Boss/

[armednfree]

So, with Lee's 200 grain 44 bullet, what should I expect with 6.5-7.0 grains of Trail Boss? Same thing in the 45 colt, but using A hensley + Gibbs 215 grain that is coming out at .454.

55114



Since there is no crimp grove I figure over the front band. Tumble lubed and unsized.

[sparky45]

Straight out of IMR's reloading data: 250 GR. CAST LRNFP IMR Trail Boss .452" 1.600" 4.5 606 8,800 PSI 5.8 727 12,700 PSI
The data is available free at the IMR website. I presently use TB with .45ACP as well as .45 Colt, it's a pleasure to load and shoot.
The 4.5 and 5.8 are the pwd charges and the 606 and 727 are the boolit speed(s).

[rexherring]

I've been loading 4.5 grs with a 200 Lee RNFP in .45 Colt and have great luck with it. Not much recoil and accurate.

[JLDickmon]

Trail Boss is basically loaded by volume.. like their website suggests, a 99% load density with just about any bullet/case

[bigboredad]

for me trail boss has worked most excellent I really like it the .45 acp when I'm looking for a low recoil recoil load and It works great in bigger cases that can take advantage of the fluff and the reduced recoil like the .454, .460,.500 S and W

[joec]

I've not only used it with 45 Colt 200/250 gr bullets but also 45-70 405 gr bullets. Love the stuff for target loads as it has low recoil and I find if very accurate behind most cast bullets.

[Hammerhead]

You don't need 100% load density to get good accuracy with Trail Boss.
I get great accuracy in .45 Colt, .44 spl and 30-30 with it at about 60% load density or better.

[armednfree]

Kicking this thread back up

I shot the Trail Boss with 6 grains behind my 215 grain boolit in my 45 Colt Blackhawk. Very accurate! I also shot it at 4 grains behind a purchased 158 grain semi wad cutter, very accurate in my 3" GP-100, but very low, and not as accurate in my 4" GP-100, but still pretty good.

I just cast several hundred 148 grain .3b cal full wadcutters, Solid, not HB. Those are from my H+G 4 cavity mold. The charge will be 2.2 grains of Trail Boss, These will be tumble lubed with the 45-45-10 mix. Here's the question, These boolits are coming out at .360 so should I try them as cast or size them down to .358? There are no chambering issues in the .357 mag chamber on either gun. What would you do to start?

[bigboredad]

Load as cast

[Hang Fire]

This may prove interesting to some, I came across Trail Boss weights in Lee dippers over at: http://www.cascity.com/forumhall/index.php?topic=19884.0

Know I found it so, as Lee at this time does not have listing for Trail Boss on chart for my Lee dipper set.

Work was done thanks to Athena Jake and a good job he did do. I cross checked several dipper readings on my beam scale across the spectrum and they were either dead on or only off by a miniscule amount.



Lee Dipper TRAIL BOSS Calculated to:

0.3 1.4 grains 1.38121547
0.5 2.3 grains 2.302025783
0.7 3.2 grains 3.222836096
1 4.6 grains 4.604051565
1.3 6.0 grains 5.985267035
1.6 7.4 grains 7.366482505
1.9 8.7 grains 8.747697974
2.2 10.1 grains 10.12891344
2.5 11.5 grains 11.51012891
2.8 12.9 grains 12.89134438
3.1 14.3 grains 14.27255985
3.4 15.7 grains 15.65377532
3.7 17.0 grains 17.03499079
4 18.4 grains 18.41620626
4.3 19.8 grains 19.79742173

Trail Boss VMD = 0.2172
Calc for CC gn*vmd=cc
Calc for gn cc/vmd=gn
Calc for VMD cc/gn=vmd

[armednfree]

Looking at the options with the 148 grain wadcutter in a 38 I'm thinking it falls outside Trail Boss's useful range. Trail boss is intended for large cases with light loads. In the case of this load most of the case is used up by bullet and there is no large volume. Data on that boolit is 2.3 grains of trail boss for 675 fps. With Bulseye its 3 grains at 806 FPS. I'm thinking in this case the old tried and true Bulseye load is the way to go.

[thegatman]

I use Trailboss with 45-70 and 45 Colt. Never tried it in 45ACP. Have had great luck with it in 45-70 with cast. The trick is not to compress it. Used the formula for 70%.