44 mag S&W Niteguard, devistators, and trail boss

[Tripplebeards]

I just loaded up a few of my 1st cast of PC and GC devistators to try in my 44 mag Niteguard. I also loaded up my free box of 180g XTPs that hornady sent me when I bought my bushmaster dies.

Both 240g and 180g loads have 6g of trailboss in them. I just wanted to find some low powered loads that will make this pistol fun to shoot again. After about a dozen shots my knuckles are bleeding from the recoil. I can hit pop cans one after the other at 30 yards with full house loads but would like to WANT to shoot it more often so I hope trailboss will cut down on the recoil quite a bit to make it feel like cowboy loads in my 45 colt/vaquero.

I tried trailboss in my 375 Rum and it recoiled like a 243 but it averaged 12" groups at a 100 yards. I'm hoping trail boss can hold a descent group to 30-40 yards with my Niteguard.

My BH is around 14.3, COWW and 2% pewter. Was planning on using these in my 77/44 but wanted to load up a few and try them. Don't know if the HP will open and lower speeds? If not it will still put a big hole in whatever it hits and have a lot deeper penatration.


Has anyone tried trailboss in 44 mag and how did it do?

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[bluelund79]

I'm using Trailboss with 260gr Keith style boolits. It's not going to win a bullseye contest, but I can hit a soda can most of the time at 50 yards. Mine is a Model 69, 4.25" Smith L Frame. Good grips made a bigger difference. I'm using Herrett Jordan Troopers. May want to look at grips as well.

[Tripplebeards]

Sweet, I'm glad to hear that trailboss will group that well.

I just remembered loads of bacon's tests I watched a month ago with 8BH and it wasn't expanding untill over 900fps.

I think this is a good excuse to use the failed 16:1 mix I tried to make from 16 lbs of lead flooring and and a pound of pewter that ended up only hardening at 7.5 BH. With 6% pewter I should have good elasticity to keep the boolit from fragmenting.

I'll PC and GC them and should have a good expanding HP at low velocity.

Bacon was getting some deep penatration with 8 BH at lower velocities and getting up to 2' of penatration in jel blocks up untill the boolit started expanding at over a 1000fps. I'm guessing my 14.3 BH devastor load definitely is not going to expand if not hitting bone and would go clear through a small black bear or deer at close range or crack a skull.

[Lefty SRH]

Trail Boss is a really neat fun powder. My daughter loves it in my .223 rifle.

[30Carbiner]

I use Trail Boss in 44 Special cases in my 329PD. Works great and makes the gun fun to shoot.


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[Tripplebeards]

I casted up some 7.5BH today. Figured they would expand at lower velocities.

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I sized and GC a few to try.

[bluelund79]

Those turned out real nice. Hope they perform as you intend

[Shuz]

For 800 to 900 fps loads in my .44 mags, I use Trail Boss. It groups well, has minimal re-coil, and I don't have to pay attention to the size of the boolit(diameter) or the hardness to minimize leading. My theory is that the extreme bulk of this powder acts like a buffer or gas check, so that none is really needed.

[tdoyka]

i use 250gr mihek hp and trail boss(44 mag) and it does 4 - 5" at 25 yards off hand and it will do 2-3" at 25 yards benched.(i do everything with the left arm, i'm disabled). recoil is minimal to nonexistent. i use 40:1 (lead/tin).

tripplebeards, i've just add the loads of bacon!

[18Bravo]

I use 6.9gr of Trail Boss behind a cast 240gr LSWC. It's been my "go to" plinking round out of my 629 for a while now. Pretty accurate out to 50 yards with minimal recoil. When I'm doing my part I average 1.5 inch groups from the rest with a 4x scope. I'm sure others here could do much better but with old eyes and less than steady hands I call that OK in my book.

[Tripplebeards]

I tried the 6g load of COWW AC GC PC load at 25 yards. I leaned two pallets together and put up a target. I found two of the boolits laying about an inch in back of the 2nd pallet and the bigger mushroom was laying 10 ft in front of the target...I think it was one of the ones I shot at a plastic jug on the ground. It grouped about the size of a pie plate so this load is definitely out but I could shoot it all day! Definitely not a deep penatrator load as well. I thought all my boolits would have made it a country mile past two pallets with a BH of 14.3.

My buddies 12 year old loved shooting these loads.

It started raining so I couldn't try my 7 and 7.5g loads with softer alloy.

Looks like they would expand if hitting bone.

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[Groo]

Groo here
U have found that Trailboss works best at near 100% to the base of the boolet, a hot or magnum primer and a heavy crimp.

[W.R.Buchanan]

Have you found that these loads shoot high? If so speeding them up will help. With Short Barreled Revolvers the slower the load the longer the bullet spends in the barrel during recoil and thus end up shooting higher. If that is happening I'd suggest speeding things up a little. If it is not happening slow things down until it starts to show then up a little. That will be your lightest usable load. The whole idea is to get the gun to shoot to the sights with a load that will be powerful enough to be effective.

Mine for my S&W .44 Special (similar to your gun)is 6.0 gr. of W231 with Keith Boolits. 5.4 gr. shot 12" high at 25 yards off a rest. 6.0 is dead on.

I would also suggest some S&W X-Frame rubber grips for that gun. They made all the difference in the world on my 696.

Randy