Trail Boss powder

[hanleyfan]

I have been using this powder for a while now and was wondering it is possible to overcharge a load with it to where you could blow your gun up? I just don't see how seeing you can't crush it even with the shell loaded full up to the bottom of the boolit I have never had a problem with it. the calibures I load with it are 45 colt, 44 special and 45/70. anyone blow up a gun when using trail boss?

[dverna]

Look up the maximum charge on their website for each caliber and bullet weight you are loading. Measure and dump into case. See how much room is left in the case.

I do not use it...never will...I am too cheap and shoot too much.

[John McCorkle]

I have been using this powder for a while now and was wondering it is possible to overcharge a load with it to where you could blow your gun up? I just don't see how seeing you can't crush it even with the shell loaded full up to the bottom of the boolit I have never had a problem with it. the calibures I load with it are 45 colt, 44 special and 45/70. anyone blow up a gun when using trail boss?But bottleneck cartridges with large volume may see that super fast burning powder a problem...not near my laptop but I'll play around with quick load this evening to see what I can come up with at 100% load density for say....3006, 243, and a few others just to see

Sent from my Moto G Play using Tapatalk

[mvozz]

I LOVE Trail Boss. I load from 22 Hornet up to 45-70. I just scored 10 lbs in a bulk case at a great price. It is a fast powder that burns very clean. It is so fluffy that it would be real hard to overcharge a case as long as you stay below the bottom of the projectile so you don't compress. It is a fun and accurate powder. My wife told me I could make her all the loads I want in 30-30 with Trail Boss.

[Guesser]

I've tried it in 45-70, 38-55, 43 Spanish and 30-30. I don't see the point of it in any one of those cartridges simply because I had already developed different loads for all of them that were accurate and easy to shoot. However, I find it very useful in 32-20 hand gun loads as well as 32 Short Colt, 38 S&W, 32 S&W Long, 32 S&W (short). The older hand gun cartridges, especially the small bores, benefit from the Trail Boss characteristics, It works in 45 Colt and 44 Special but I see no advantage of TB over Unique.

[reddog81]

I don’t think you can get the pressure up high enough to hurt anything other than the weakest piece of **** gun that’s ready to fail with any load. The pressure just doesn’t get very high using Trail Boss - that’s the whole point of the powder.

I’m not sure what would happen if you crushed up a bunch into a fine powder and tried but that’d just be asking for problems. They recommend not compressing it but have explained that compression doesn’t cause high pressure, just erratic ignition because the primer can’t make it through the powder column in a consistent repeatable manner.

[244]

Here is IMR's guide for using Trail Boss powder in reduced loads. They specifically state that 100% fill with no compression will be safe in ANY cartridge.

https://imrpowder.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/trail-boss-reduced-loads-r_p.pdf

[44Blam]

I love TrailBoss - only thing I have heard is that you don't compress it. Otherwise, load is:
Full case minus boolit
Simple.
Reminds me, I need to make some 44 mag cowboy loads... Yeeeehaw!

[John McCorkle]

Here is IMR's guide for using Trail Boss powder in reduced loads. They specifically state that 100% fill with no compression will be safe in ANY cartridge.

https://imrpowder.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/trail-boss-reduced-loads-r_p.pdfThis is fantastic!

Sent from my Moto G Play using Tapatalk

[mdi]

I have used Trail Boss in my 44 Specials, 44 Magnum, ans 45 colt. It's OK, nuttin' to write home about. Normal Trail Boss loads are mild and easy/fun to shot, but so are Bullseye and W231.

Many years ago I developed safe reloading practices and have never had a double charge slip by me (I can't remember catching any either but anything is possible). The last thing done after charging the case and before seating the bullet is to visually check, look inside the case and note the charge level. In 1970 I had a squib, and no Kabooms or near kabooms...

[Black Jaque Janaviac]

I do not use it...never will...I am too cheap and shoot too much.

Huh? Is Trail Boss expensive?

I mean it can sound expensive when you read about people filling the case full, but if you actually threw those charges on a scale they are very light. So grain-for-grain you don't use any more Trail Boss than you would W231 or something like that. Hodgdon site says 5.5gr of W231 or 5.3 gr. of TB under a 125 grain lead RNFP in .357 mag.

A quick look at powder prices at Midsouth Shooters indicates that Win 231 would only be $0.002/shot cheaper. That's 10 cent more per box of 50 to shoot TB. If that is what you consider too expensive then my hat's off to ya good sir! You're either shootin' a helluva lot more than me, or you're shootin' on a tighter budget than me. You'd be a good man.

[tja6435]

I like Trail Boss for reduced .223 and .44 mag loads. I think my load is either 5gr or 6gr Trail Boss under the MP-444 300gr boolit, shoots very well and not punishing at all.

[dverna]

Huh? Is Trail Boss expensive?

I mean it can sound expensive when you read about people filling the case full, but if you actually threw those charges on a scale they are very light. So grain-for-grain you don't use any more Trail Boss than you would W231 or something like that. Hodgdon site says 5.5gr of W231 or 5.3 gr. of TB under a 125 grain lead RNFP in .357 mag.

A quick look at powder prices at Midsouth Shooters indicates that Win 231 would only be $0.002/shot cheaper. That's 10 cent more per box of 50 to shoot TB. If that is what you consider too expensive then my hat's off to ya good sir! You're either shootin' a helluva lot more than me, or you're shootin' on a tighter budget than me. You'd be a good man.

Thanks for posting that. I did the numbers when TB was first introduced in 9 oz containers and they were the same price as 1 lb'ers…..and it was expensive. Now I see they offer it in 5 lb jugs.

I got 35 lbs of Clean Shot when it was on sale, and I am saving $.44 a box over TB. That works out to $75-100 per year for me. YMMV

BTW, wanted to add that $100 a year would not bother me if TB had some advantage I needed/wanted. In my situation, it doesn't. I have powder check dies on the reloaders to check for overcharges.

[dondiego]

Yes, when I bought a bottle of TB it was priced the same as a pound of any other pistol powder and then I realized it was a 9 ounce jug! I only bought one. It worked in my handgun loads. It is good that you can't load a double charge but I didn't see anything special about it. Maybe time to take another look at it for my 32 cal pistols.

[Shuz]

One real nice feature of Trail Boss is that by using it you don't have to pay as much attention to the size of your cast boolits. I can shoot .431 dia Bhn 11, cast boolits outta Smiths with .4285" throats and achieve absolutely no leading! It's my theory that the vast amount of those little donut holes acts like a buffer or gas check and eliminates the leading as the boolits get squeezed down by the throats. I would not have believed this until I tried it!

[stubshaft]

Some people swear by it, and I swear at it. I've used it and never gotten acceptable accuracy with it. For some games like SASS it is probably a godsend, but I prefer standard powders.

[1bluehorse]

When I first tried Trail Boss a few years back, it hadn't been out long, I was buying it for 13 and change for the 9oz bottle. Still, that was a bit more than "regular" powders that were running in the 20 dollar a pound range at the time. I see it today for around 16/18 bucks where others are in 25 dollar range so it's still a bit higher for the smaller bottles. However at 115 bucks for a five pounder (if you can find one) it comes in a bit closer to some other popular handgun powders. I use it mostly in 45 colt and really enjoy shooting it. I run 6gr. under a 260gr cast and it avgs. right at 775fps. Not much off an 8gr Unique load, but it has less recoil, is very accurate and clean burning. I find it meters well, fills the case and is just a "fun" powder. That's what it was really designed for IMO, just plain fun. If you'd rather shoot 8/8.5 gr Unique or Bullseye, ww231, Red Dot (? I use that for shot gun not hand gun) or a multitude of others, good for you. Maybe you'll save 5 bucks a month, if you shoot a lot, by using them. I quit smoking 2 years ago so I'm spending the "extra" money on Trail Boss and I'm still way ahead ....:Fire:

[dverna]

Many years ago, I shot a lot of CAS. I used Clays for both reduced shotgun loads and the .38 Spl. It was simple and easy to use one powder. That was when Trail Boss came out. Never even tried TB because Clays worked so well for me. Very accurate and low recoil.

I took a course with Evil Roy at the Indiana State shoot one year. He fired some of my .38 loads and loved them. Asked me the load...which of course I shared with him. When a former World Champion likes your ammunition, the loads are probably OK.

BTW, ER admitted he had blown the primer system up on his 1050 by being ham handed and trying to go too fast. He was fast with everything. Told me a story about going to a range and a bunch of guys were blasting away with 1911’s. Told them he could fire his SAA faster than they could shoot their semi-autos. Of course he won the bet....hell, I could have won that bet!! No waiting for the slide to return to battery with the SAA.

For you pistol guys who have any doubt...look at some YouTube of Cowboy Shooters with SAA’s. How about 10 shots on target in less than 3 seconds with a lever action?

Sorry for the thread drift....

[seetrout]

Just tried TB the other day for the first time. Since I stock Universal (I call it Hodgdon's Unique) in 8 lb kegs I never saw the need to try anything else for my pistol calibers. Until I inherited my Great Grandfathers model 92 Winchester in .38-40. 7gr of Universal rather disappears in that old blackpowder case. Sooo I was at the shop for some other things and although it galled me to buy a pound can of powder with only 9oz in it, I decided to try it anyway.

When I opened the can I almost spilled it.....that can was FULL! There's only 9oz in there because that's all that will fit. Set the pistol powder measure to 5.2gr and started throwing charges. I soon found that it doesn't like the small diameter of the small rotor cavity and will occasionally bridge and throw a charge of about 3.5gr. Switched to the large cavity rotor and it throws to less than + or - .1gr. Good enough for me.

At the range I did not shoot over the chronograph so I can't compare velocity, but for target practice who cares. side by side against 5.2gr TB vs 7gr Universal. TB had less recoil, was quieter and seemed more accurate although I was shooting 50yds offhand so it was probably me. I will hypothesize that velocity was lower along with the lower recoil so I had to go up a notch on the rear sight with TB.

In summation I am pleased with the performance of TB in the .38-40 winchester. I may try it in .30-30 plinkers in the future, but I will likely stick with Univ for the rest of my pistol loading.