.308 Trail Boss

[robctwo]

Having fun with the .243, so I thought I'd load up some .308 as well. 14 gr Trail Boss fills the case up to where the bullet will seat pretty well. Used some Speer 110 gr Hollow Point. Shot a couple with my Savage bolt.

I was looking at some other articles, people using Clays and Red Dot. I've run a bunch of Red Dot 13 gr. in .308. Will be interesting to compare. Tried some Clays just to see where the volume compares. It took 20 gr Clays to fill like the 14 gr Trail Boss.

 

[918v]

Try some Blue Dot. You get spectacular accuracy with 60%+ load density which eliminates the possibility of double charging.

 

[robctwo]

Went to the range today. Had a variety of .308 loads with Trail Boss. 110, 130, 150 and 168 gr. Mostly using 14-15 gr powder. Good times. Some grouped well, some not so well. shot at 50, 100 and 200 yards. Really impressed that they were flying well at 200. Took a bit of elevation.

What I really liked was that I shot about 150 rounds with no shoulder discomfort. Had on three layers, but no special pad. I'm going to be playing with these a lot.

 

[MtnCreek]

Which bullet weights shot better?
Thanks!

 

[Legionnaire]

Good thread topic! I've been using Trail Boss for mild loads in .357 and .44 mag cases, but would really like to try loading up some .308 cases. Think I'd like to try some cast bullets, though. Anybody have any experience/suggestions? What about Missouri Bullet #1 Carbine (115 grain) or #2 Whitetail (135 grain)? Both are .309 diameter and Brinell 18.

 

[res7s]

13.0gr of Red Dot works good too.

 

[robctwo]

I like the 13 gr Red Dot as well. Just heard about the Trail Boss idea and have 5 pounds of it on hand.

My best groups were with 110 gr Hornady VMax with 15 gr powder. 15 gr is max for no compression, and the information is do not compress. I shot 110 gr Speed SP, HP and RN. Speer 130 gr SP. Speer 150 gr SP and Hornady 168 gr Match.

I have some 115, 135 and 165 gr lead on the way.

My friend is loading .223 with good results at 100 yards.

What I like is that I can shoot the long guns again without killing my shoulder. I really don't care if the bullet is only going 1,100 to 1,600 fps. Looking forward to testing out the lead.

I'm sure those Missouri bullets will work fine. I don't think you can push them too fast with 15 gr Trail Boss, and that does fill up the case. 130 gr bullets might need a little less to avoid compression. I was using 14 gr with the 150 and 168 gr bullets.

My Savage 10FP barrel just got warm.

 

[Bwana John]

Try IMR SR 4759

 

[Greg Mercurio]

I'm a TB fan. I load it from .30 on up to .450 NE. It does not care a lot if the charge weight varies a few 10th's and lets me shoot all day reardless of caliber. Load it per IMR instructions and shoot. It's also very useful for fire forming as it doesn't heat the barrel like reduced charges of standard powders. I have noticed that it doesn't completely iron out the crimps on cartridges such as .44Mag, so overworking the case mouths may be an issue in the future. But my wife can shoot reduced loads in her SBH and just loves it. If she's happy then the cost of replacing brass is of no consequence.

 

[robctwo]

I like 4759.

I'll be using Trail Boss for a while and reporting on how it's working for me.