I think I found my 45 load

[berettaprofessor]

With limited powder available here, I recently came across Trail Boss and decided to try it in 45ACP. The pictured results of one large magnificent group below are the first 8 rounds of 4.0 grains Trail Boss behind a 230gr LRN seated to an OAL of 1.240, shot at 8 yards offhand with a Taurus 1911. Spread was 1 5/8's inches from outside to outside (ignore the 6 shots of 38SP at the bottom). All rounds extracted normally and the brass looked good.

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Like, WOW! I've rarely, if ever, had a group that nice, myself, offhand. These loads were softer than commercial loads, definitely a push rather than a snap. I also tried some 4.5gr loads with the same bullet but the spread of 8 rounds was three times what the 4.0gr was. Added advantage of the Trail Boss is that 4.0gr almost completely fills the case to the seated bullet. In fact, I was worried that the 4.5gr loads might have slightly compressed.

 

[Rico567]

Definitely a keeper. Write that one down and don't forget it!

 

[ZXJohn]

Trail Boss in .45 ACP

Trail Boss is all I shoot in my .45's, and not only because it's just about the only powder I can find around here most of the time.

I have the additional "challenge" that I also load for a vintage .455 Webley and I really don't want to overpressure it - especially as I tried it for PP this week and I can keep-up with the herd using a cut .45 Auto cylinder I bought and moon clips. I mean, toeing the line against modern 9mm's with a WW1-vintage revolver, how cool is that?

I use the exact same powder and bullet in the Webley and the ACP's, and of course 'SWMBO' also wants to shoot PP with her SR1911 so I have an additional reason to keep the load as mild as possible. So I load 3.2gr Trail Boss; very mild, has trouble breaking 650 fps. At that velocity it smokes and it's not the cleanest load, but it reliably cycles the Ruger and my S&W 4506 with 255gr lead boolits. It will NOT cycle them with 200gr lead SWC's; I need 3.6gr for those, and they aren't as accurate as I'd like (of course, neither are the 255gr's, but I suspect that's my fault...)

I'm casting two types of 255gr for the .45's; I started with Lyman #452424 Keith-form SWC's, which work just great in all 3 of them. But I could only get a 2-cavity mould, and it's long backache-ing drudgery trying to feed three hungry .45's two boolits at a time. So I ordered a 6-cavity Lee 255gr RF #90349, now THAT'S the answer! Turn out boolits so fast the pot cools off from the lead I'm feeding it ( - a real bad thing about 255gr boolits is that you only get 28 per lb of lead).

But the funny thing about those RF boolits is, they're as accurate in her SR1911 and my Webley as are the SWC's, but the 4506 will not shoot them - they catch on the slide-lock lever, and the slide thinks the magazine is empty and locks itself back. So, I guess I cast SWC's for the 4506, and RF's for the other two.