Trail Boss questions...

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Bill M.

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I load a good number of coated bullets over Trail Boss in .41 Mag. Like the loads I have for .41 mag a lot. Now I am loading 158 grain coated over Trail Boss in .357. My questions are: Best accuracy with magnum or regular primers? The Hodgdon data I use is for magnum primers. Best accuracy towards the lower or upper end of the data range?

My inclination is to go ahead and use the magnum primers (I have a fair supply of them) and to load near the top of the powder range (not touching the bullet base).

Would I expect better accuracy with HP 38, Universal, Tightgroup, or Clays? All of which I have a little of. Not much HP38 though.
 
When TB first came out I experimented a bit with it. I do find that near maximum charges tend to give better accuracy. I couldn't see any significant difference in accuracy with magnum vs. standard primers, so I tend to use whatever is closest to hand.

Overall, I have not been impressed with the accuracy of TB. I still burn a bunch of it, especially in bigger cases where I want low velocity without worrying about double or triple charges, but when I'm really looking for small groups in non-magnum cartridges, I turn to powders like Bullseye and Unique.
 
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I have seen the same thing with the "max" charge...it likes to fill the entire case.

One thing that I was told recently and tried was a heavier crimp. Not sure why, but I figured "low pressure = light crimp" like I do with my other puffer rounds. I light crimped TB loads and didn't have the best accuracy with 44 magnum case loads. Last batch, I crimped them significantly more, more like I would with a full on magnum load and to my surprise, they were far more accurate.
 
Thank you for the crimp idea. I also had assumed that minimum crimp was appropriate. I will have to make the change and reassess.
 
I use magnum SPP for all my Trail Boss .357 loads. This lets me keep my standard SPP for loading other 357 loads (and 45 ACP small primer brass) with HP-38,Unique,Bullseye etc. I like TB loads and find them accurate in my 357 Winchester and Vaquero at near max loading with a medium roll crimp.. I measured the bullet seating depth,cut the brass case at that mark,filled the case with TB and weighed the powder charge. I used 90% of that for my max loading.
 
I've only recently started using TB, loaded and shot a total of 50 rounds in 480 Ruger.

Ladder test from start to mid range, with a heavy crimp, accuracy improved for me at the higher charges. I have since made another ladder from mid to max charge weights, but haven't shot them yet.

chris
 
I tried TB in 44 mag. For low recoil loads, I had better accuracy with Clays. But I did not put much crimp on the TB loads, I will have to try that when I get a chance.
 
The reloading data on the Hodgdon website for .357 mag for TrailBoss is with magnum primers. I just finished loading 50 using a Lee Auto Drum powder measure with the Trail Boss. It worked great. I set it for 4.1 grains and every charge I checked weighed that. The Trail Boss meters better than Blue Dot for sure. I did a light roll crimp. I got to thinking why not roll crimp. The bullet is going to engrave with the rifling and that is bound to be harder on the coating than any possible damage coming out of the case.
 
Obturation said:
Anyone have any luck getting tb to meter decently in a powder dispenser / drop? I use dippers because those Cheerios meter horribly for me
Click to expand...

Someone with a heck of a lot more reloading knowledge than me told me "You don't use a dropper for TB, you use a scoop" when I told him hos much I hated using it due to it not playing nice with a powder dispenser. I started using scoops only after that. It's still not the fastest thing to load, but it's good enough.
 
When I tested TB in 45acp, I was surprised to see a huge difference in velocity between large and small primers. I have to imagine that magnum primers might be a good idea in some calibers when using TB. I think it would be wise to test it when working up loads.
 
Toprudder said:
When I tested TB in 45acp, I was surprised to see a huge difference in velocity between large and small primers. I have to imagine that magnum primers might be a good idea in some calibers when using TB. I think it would be wise to test it when working up loads.
Click to expand...

It may be a few weeks until I get around to it, but I think I'll try the mag vs non mag primer thing on some 44 loads. I'll run it through the chrono and see if I can find a difference.

I haven't done enough testing, but doing all the reading that I have on TB, and using my own results, TB seems to like being loaded at absolute max, with a heavy crimp, and with magnum primers. With it providing such a low pressure, loading to max isn't dangerous and I feel safe doing it.
 
Typetwelve said:
It may be a few weeks until I get around to it, but I think I'll try the mag vs non mag primer thing on some 44 loads. I'll run it through the chrono and see if I can find a difference.

I haven't done enough testing, but doing all the reading that I have on TB, and using my own results, TB seems to like being loaded at absolute max, with a heavy crimp, and with magnum primers. With it providing such a low pressure, loading to max isn't dangerous and I feel safe doing it.
Click to expand...
The only thing I'll mention for the sake of conversation - don't compress Trail boss (the boss doesn't like getting squished)
 
Typetwelve said:
It may be a few weeks until I get around to it, but I think I'll try the mag vs non mag primer thing on some 44 loads. I'll run it through the chrono and see if I can find a difference.

I haven't done enough testing, but doing all the reading that I have on TB, and using my own results, TB seems to like being loaded at absolute max, with a heavy crimp, and with magnum primers. With it providing such a low pressure, loading to max isn't dangerous and I feel safe doing it.
Click to expand...
Crimp - that may be important with TB, and may be part of the problem I saw with 45acp since I could only taper crimp.
 
I use TB a lot, mostly in .32 revolvers and sometimes in .45 revolvers. I've found magnum primers are a must, they just work better, things feel and sound more consistent when shooting. I find that when I load for revolvers that magnum primers seem to be better. The long cases and amount of air in them vs semi auto calibers has an effect, so for anything with Magnum in the cartridge name or something like .38 or .45 Schofield/Colt I use magnum primers. Short stuff like .32 S&W/S&W Long, .38 Short Colt, .45 Cowboy Special... that stuff likely gets no benefit to using a magnum primer.

I always put a moderate to heavy crimp on all my cases, I've never had an issue when there was too much crimp, but have had issues when there wasn't enough crimp. My .32 TB loads use a Berry's bullet with no crimp groove, so I do as heavy a taper crimp with those as I can and it works well.
 
Hodgdon some time ago began the practice of only publishing data for magnum primers for "magnum" cartridges like 357 and 44 Magnum because of a concern that people will use magnum primers for magnum cartridges. Trailboss does not need SPM primers in 357 cases and is not likely to benefit from them.

I have never seen one powder produce more accurate loads than another powder. Some powders definitely produce more consistent velocities. The most consistent velocities I've observed from 357 Magnum were with hot loads of HP-38. I have not tried Titegroup yet which I suspect would also have a high degree of consistency in that cartridge. I have not found Trail Boss interesting in 357, but really appreciate it for making light loads in larger rifle cartridges.
 
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