Anyone have any experience with reduced loads in big bores using Trail Boss? Anyone hear of any issues? I might be heading to the range with new shooters and was interested in loading up some reduced loads.

I work with the .450-400 3" running a 400 grain cast with 30 grains of TB...1100fps. With Trail Boss,there is a point you work up to(60%),then anything over the pressure will spike and volcity will slow down.Kinda fun stuff, I also do sud-sonics in .308 and 7.62x39 with it....

In Graeme Wright's book, he warns about some pressure oddities with Trail Boss.

I have used it in my 577 BPE, 577 NE, and 600 Overkill and it does not get bullets going fast enough in my guns to stabilize them consistantly. 25-50 percent out of the 577BPE in either 560gr, 600gr and 650gr bullets would tumble. Shooting 900gr Barnes solids and Woodleigh softs 50-75% would tumble, 700gr cast all tumbled.

In the 577 NE about 25% tumbled with 750 Woodleigh softs.

I am done playing with it and not using it for those guns.

Matthew

I use Red Dot in my 404 Jeffery for plinking fun. With 20gn RD behind my 350gn GC boolit I get 1400fps and enough 'feel' to enjoy the shooting experience, 350 shots per lb of powder, more than suitable accuracy, and plenty of rifle familarity. I usually finish up with a few at 1900fps with 63gn H4350 or 2365fps with 74gn Varget.
The same front sight blade is effectvie for all the cast loads at 55yds on 8in x 8in steel plate.
I have found Red Dot to be an excellent powder for reduced loads and 11.5gn gets me 1500fps in my 7x57. It is a powder that is not position sensative and no fillers are recomended.
There is a recognised load of 13gn for all standard 30 cartridges (excluding the x39 variety) and that was where I started with the 404 which was in the sub-sonic region and it was when I got to 1400fps for 20gn that I had an accurate reduced load providing all that I could want from load reduction.

Von Gruff.

Caliber brass primer Powder weight bullet avg.fps temp
458 Lott jamison CCI 200 Trail Boss 20.0 gr Oregon trails 350gr 1221.4 25F
458 Lott jamison CCI 200 Trail Boss 24.0 gr Oregon trails 350gr 1350.7 25F
458 Lott jamison CCI 200 Trail Boss 27.0 gr Oregon trails 350gr 1411.3 25F

Average velocity calculated from 10 rounds. Shot 01/27/2010. No loads were particularly accurate.

akalinin
Are you using the .459? If so do you get any leading?

quote:

Originally posted by Slider:
akalinin
Are you using the .459? If so do you get any leading?

Yes, I think the Oregon Trails 350gr bullet is .459 diameter. They seems sufficiently hard and I do not notice any undue leading.

I wouldn't push them past 1600 fps. At that point, you'll experience minute-of-barn door accuracy.

The hodgdon site explains that trail boss can be used in any rifle cartridge. Finding a load will be powder to base of bullet equals 100% and to start loads at 70% of that point.


http://hodgdon.com/PDF/Trail-Boss-data.pdf

akalinin

Do you use any type of filler with the reduced loads?

I use Trail Boss and a .41 Mag. 210 gr. pistol bullet in my .450/.400 - 3". Inexpensive,mild, and very accurate (5 usually cloverleaf @100). As a bonus it shoots to the same POI as my full tilt Woodleigh 400 gr. loads which is very handy for scope checks,practice etc. without the recoil and cost of the Woodleighs.

Tried to do something similar with my .22/250 and got a shotgun patterns

Slider, the real advantage to using Trail Boss as opposed to other reduced load powders is that it is very bulky and fills the case so no fillers needed. When I researched fillers,there were too many strongly opposing opinions so I decided using fillers was something I definitely wanted to stay away from.

quote:

Originally posted by Slider:
akalinin

Do you use any type of filler with the reduced loads?

The short answer is 'No'.

I've done reduced loads with SR4759 and Trail Boss in the 458 Lott, 375 Remington Ultra Mag and the 30-06 (to make some training ammunition for one of my younger sons).

I'm sure some people have had good success with cream of wheat or kapok. Fillers just plain scare the hell out of me, especially in bottle-neck cases.

Harvey: Are you shooting a double or a Ruger No. 1, perhaps?

Bill/Oregon - a Ruger No. 1.

I tried Trail Boss with 350 grain Laser Cast Bullets in my 458 Win Mag today. I contacted IMR and was told to use the 385 Cast Bullet recipe for the 458 Winchester Magnum that's listed on their site. I also asked about Primers and they told me Large Rifle should be fine. The recipe was 16-19 grains of Trail Boss for a 385 gr Cast Bullet. I loaded 2 cartridges of each grain and shot groups at 100 yards. The rifle Scope was set on 4 power. The best group was 16 grains which measured 1.88

I did Crono the loads at 15 feet.

I have a 26 inch barrel.

16 grains 1298 and 1300
17 grains 1199 and 1196
18 grains 1238 and 1246
19 grains 1263 and 1266