Poor results with Trail Boss

Did you have a good crimp on the bullet? I use TB with Lee 105 SWC in my S&W 642 but with about 3.4 grains of powder and get good results. Maybe try less and see if you can find a sweet spot.

I can't speak for 38 but for 45LC it is an accurate and consistent.

I'm using TB in 32 H&R, 45-70, 30-30, 327 Federal Magnum, 38 spec, 357 mag and can say I've not seen any issues to speak of.

You have to crimp them in better, then you will get a more consistent burn with Trail Boss. Light crimp or no crimp do not work well for me in any caliber with it.

Good crimp helps. In my experience, TB seems to respond better to heavy for caliber bullets in pistol caliber. I can't get it to meter very well but it seems far less sensitive to weight deviations than traditional powders.

Trail Boss,one of my "go to" powders for my 38 Spl., meters excellent, accurate and all around super fun to shoot.
I even use it in my 45 ACP with good results.

I just use the closest Lee scoop for the load I use. It does not work well with the Lee PPM.

I have a 100 rnds loaded with 158 gr SWC 'n' TrailBoss waiting to be shot on my next range session. I'll be shooting them in my OMT Colt revolver. I'll post on my results.

I don't think your experience was powder related but rather the boolit weight-design.

I've shot a bunch of TB in 45 Colt and had great results with the "standard weight for caliber".

Floydster, oldfortyfiveauto, care to give us your load data for your good results of trail boss in 38sp please?

The OP never mentioned how much powder he used, just the eyeball test. I'd bet the weights were all over the place which matched the results.

I'm using MBC 105 grain bullets, CCI SPP and filled the case to just below the bullet depth.
I visually inspected every powder charge and I know that all cases were all filled to the same level.

Click to expand...

IMHO larryh1108 has it right.

You can't "eyeball" smokeless powder.
It has to MEASURED or WEIGHED.

Also a good crimp helps

Try it again only next time use some sort of measure that will give you consistant charges.
Trailboss works pretty fair in the smaller capacity cases like the 38.

I load TB in 38SPL, 44SPL, 44 Colt, 44-40, 45ACP and I've probably missed one or two. Suffice it to say I've played with this powder more than the average shooter including accuracy and chronograph runs. There's a couple of things that I've found out about TB that can be confusing but for the most part it's a foolproof powder that meets a lot of needs as long as you're not looking for extreme velocities or the cleanest powder in the world.

First off, TB DOES NOT like to be compressed, at all, period end of story. By compression I don't mean like you would compress a Black Powder cartridge, even light compression can cause the stuff to act very squirrelly. If you're just eyeballing the volume then there's the possibility that you've got a little too much powder in the cartridge. I've also noticed that TB will reach a point of diminishing returns in velocity "before" you reach the max recommended load once in a while. Basically this means that more powder doesn't necessarily mean higher velocities.

Additionally I've discovered that TB isn't really suited to shooting light projectiles such as trying to develop a load for 164gr LRNFP in 45 Colt. It worked but the velocities were all over the place even though accuracy wasn't too bad.

As well as making sure that your crimps are consistent I would recommend moving up in bullet weight to something with a little more mass and use Hodgdons data from their new web site (why can't they just leave well enough alone?) as your starting point.

My personal experience with TB and 38SPL has been very positive even though I fire it out of a snubby DA carry gun. But I do load 158gr boolits.

2 grs tb with a 100 gr bullet in the 32 hr is a real sweet heart to shoot, mild like a 22 and coyote accurate to 50 yds and maybe further.

Here is all my load data from my reloading database....good bad or otherwise. I need to do a better jobs on notes.

Forgot to note that I have two rifles in 357 mag that do not like cast bullets???? But have had great luck with SNS Casting's powder coated ones which I just recently got.

I re-read your original post and noted that you're using 4.0gr of TrailBoss on a 105gr bullet. My first impression is that is an extremely LIGHT load. The load data that I have available to me right now shows that I've loaded 4.2gr of TrailBoss under a 158gr LRN with a muzzle velocity of only 676fps. I don't have the SD data on that load on hand but that's a really slow load for 38 Special.

Given the fact that "your" bullets are only 2/3'rds of the weight of what I load I might suggest that your velocities might be low enough to only dent aluminum cans let alone hit point of aim.

The lower mass of the 105's means that the powder will not be able to reach optimum pressure to provide an adequate burn rate. Increasing the crimp might help but I would also suggest upping the charge if you've got the room.

Given the fact that TrailBoss is a VERY forgiving powder we tend to play with it knowing (or at least thinking) that it's pretty hard to blow ourselves up in the process. Even though I feel that it's a very forgiving powder I've found out it does have it's limitations. I lost count of how many trips to the range and wasted rounds I consumed trying to set up those 164gr LRNFP's for 45 Colt using TrailBoss before giving up.

What I might suggest is that if you're shooting these out of a 357 then try some 357 brass so you've got some more room for powder. The problem I see though is even though you're saving on lead (if you're casting your own), you're losing any savings on lead by having to use more powder. As you probably already have realized, TrailBoss is VERY expensive when compared to other smokeless powders.

Have fun with it and let us know the final results.

OP: Your post does not state whether you used the load development process as described by DuPont in their guide. I would suggest if not, then repeat your load development using the process defined here:

https://www.hodgdon.com/PDF/Trail Boss Reduced Loads R&P.pdf

I use TB a lot for reduced loads in large bore handguns and large bore rifles. Accuracy is always excellent when the process is followed.