Trail Boss powder in the .45 ACP

I'm playing around with some 150gr SWC in the 45. The initial testing was with WST powder from 3.5 to 5.5, they all burned dirty and I thought 5.5 was going to blow up my gun. Not sure if it was gas blow by or what but there was a huge cloud of smoke and sounded different. I thought there could be a pressure issue with having such a large void in the case and tried Trail Boss and so far it has worked great and burns clean. I loaded up several at 4.7 Trail Boss for group testing. Does anyone here have experience with loading Trail Boss in the 45 ACP.

It's up to you but, your time and money would be better spent finding a load useing 185 to 200 gr SWC bullets.
There is no magic zero recoiling load.  Find a load that gives you about 750-780 fps and then practice, practice and practice some more.  The best load you can use is DRY FIRE!  

Dave C.

A master that I shoot with recently switched to 150gr SWCs.  I'll find out what he's putting under them and get back to you...

Dave C. wrote:It's up to you but, your time and money would be better spent finding a load useing 185 to 200 gr SWC bullets.
There is no magic zero recoiling load.  Find a load that gives you about 750-780 fps and then practice, practice and practice some more.  The best load you can use is DRY FIRE!  

Dave C.

+1

It is sometimes quite difficult to find an accurate load with bullets of this sectional density range.

Jim

Dave C. wrote:It's up to you but, your time and money would be better spent finding a load useing 185 to 200 gr SWC bullets.
There is no magic zero recoiling load.  Find a load that gives you about 750-780 fps and then practice, practice and practice some more.  The best load you can use is DRY FIRE!  

Dave C.

Thanks Dave, I've got the 200SWC covered, and I do have the time and money to play with these 150SWC. Just looking for comments from shooters who have experience with light weight SWC's or Trail Boss in 45ACP.

Trail Boss is fun to play with, but it doesn't meter well.
I haven't had any luck with bullets lighter than 185gn, and even then they aren't as accurate as the 200gn.
Assume you have tried Red Dot and Bullseye?
Not sure why you worry about "dirty" over accurate, but you can try N310 or N320. Solo1000 is fairly clean. AA2 is clean and meters well. 231/HP38 is still my go-to powder for .45.

trail boss's burning rate is the same as WST so if you go by loading info for it you should be in the ballpark of a good load. 4.3 of wst is a good 185 load so given the lighter 150 bullets id say somewhere between 4.6-4.9 would be about right.

Here is a lot of info on trail boss powder;

http://www.handloads.com/articles/default.asp?id=37

A 160swc loaded with 4.3 Bullseye shoots very well . Some guns need a little more 4.5 and some just flat will not group at all. I have not tried Trail Boss in the 45acp works well in the 45colt .

AHI
+1 on the 160 SWC. This bullet is widely used in N Ohio. Made by Quality Cast.
40 some yrs ago it was hand cast using a H&G S242 mold. The S meaning short. This mold dropped 165 grain bullets. They became 160's when molds were obtained for the Magma machines.
The preferred load was 4 grains of Bullseye up to 4.5. As usual mileage varies. It performed well for me for many yrs from 4.1 to 4.3 the variation resulting from lot to lot powder changes.

I shot a few 150's with 4.7 Trail Boss at 25 yards, not very impressive groups, a little smaller than 10 ring. I immediately shot some 200swc to compare the group and it was considerably tighter. But they function and its a place to start. By the way, the load work up is being tested in a Pardini GT45 with a frame mounted red dot. Quite a bit different than my hardball gun!

4.7 IMR Trail Boss on the left vs. 4.7 Winchester WST on the right.


155gr SWC, possibly from a NEI mold.

noylj wrote:Trail Boss is fun to play with, but it doesn't meter well.

Not sure why you worry about "dirty" over accurate.

Just a clarification, I have noticed that "dirty loads" have a larger ES than the same bullet with a little more powder. A cartridge loaded to the higher end of the operating pressure will burn the powder more fully, and more evenly, giving a cleaner burn. This lowers the ES and gives a more consistent cartridge and accuracy is more likely to follow.

I was not necessarily concerned with clean vs. dirty, just the possibility of an improper burn affecting accuracy.

AND, you were right, IMR Trail Boss DOES NOT meter well!