Trail Boss and 45auto

[DC Plumber]

Ok, I've read the manual I know Trail Boss works with a lot of cartridges and I have load data.

My question is what are your opinions as far as suitability for 200g LSWC and 1911s. I'm am rapidly running out of 231 and cant find any at this time but have a bottle of Trail Boss and am considering using it. I'll load a few and try it but what do you think? Sure, if nothing else is available, why not? Just looking for some friendly conversation.

Thanks in advance.

 

[stoky]

Trail Boss is a very versatile powder. If you're interested in light loads with cast bullets, you could probably get it to work. You might have to go to a lighter recoil spring to get it to cycle. Re the raging discussion on 1911 springs going on now.
A nice thing about .45 ACP is it's an easy and forgiving cartridge to reload.
IMHO, Trail Boss is best suited to black powder cartridge loads. I'd look for some Unique, Tite Group, Zip, or for cast bullets Clays, or Bullseye.

 

[GBExpat]

When I first got my 5lb jug of TrailBoss, I quickly crafted some Max Load test strings in a couple of different calibers that I was working on at the time to get some idea if it would be worthwhile with them.

The .44spc max-loads (.240gr & 250gr lead) only managed to make it into the low 700s ... so I postponed development in those.

I started working with .32-20, which was the reason that I bought the TrailBoss.

I did rather extensive testing with multiple loads and two different bullets (100gr & 115gr lead) and discovered something interesting.

As I increased the TB throw-weight, the MV increased ... until I exceeded ~87% of available case capacity ... which resulted in a stepped decrease of the MV. Hmmmm.

I first noticed that relationship while working, exclusively, with the 100gr bullets. I mentioned it here in a thread and predicted that if it truly was a TB idiosyncrasy, my best-MV load for the 115grainers would be ~3.3gr ... and it was.

I haven't gotten back to working with the .44spc (or 45acp) TB loads, but the .32-20 discovery gives me hope because I only tried the .44spc at a max-capacity load which resulted in low MV of 708-726 ... and the .32-20 strings with the 100 grainers exhibited a ~130FPS delta between the max-capacity loads and the 87%-capacity loads.

IOW, there will probably be some TB .44spc loads in my future.

 

[ReloaderFred]

Hodgdon says it good for 816 FPS maximum velocity with the 200 gr. SWC cast bullet, at a pressure of 16,100 CUP, so you should be good to go.

Hope this helps.

Fred

 

[GBExpat]

FWIW, I quickly determined that the posted load data that I considered to be useless and, instead, worked off of their alternate available-case-capacity method.

O'course, I have a CHRONY so I can easily check load velocity ... not everyone has this capability.

 

[moxie]

FWIW, Speer #14 does not list Trailboss in its data for any .45acp bullets.

See if you can find some Bullseye or Unique, or the new BE-86.

 

[GBExpat]

With TrailBoss you don't have to dig around to find & compare documented loads.

Determine how much of the case will be left unoccupied by the loaded bullet.

Load the case to that point and weigh how much TB you put in.

That represents your maximum (100%) load (all the documentation warns to not compress TB loads).

Your starting load is 70% of that maximum ... work up from there.

This is what I am referring to with my comments about ~87% of the available case capacity seeming to be a velocity sweet point.

 

[berettaprofessor]

I've used 4.2 grains of Trail Boss behind a 200gr Hornady lead conical nose loaded to 1.225OAL in a Beretta PX4. Averages 655.4fps, with a 10.3 STD.