Trail Boss - I get it

[lapsbpbep]

I tried 20 grans of varget in a 308 very light load the wife loved it

[stilly]

Hey can you use that for a 44 mag or a 50 AE also? :\

[CEDaytonaRydr]

Hey can you use that for a 44 mag or a 50 AE also? :\

For .44, yes! As long as you're using lead or copper plated, you can pretty much use it for anything. I'm not sure it will work for 50 AE, though.

Also, it sounds like you might have a Desert Eagle that can switch between 44 and 50 AE. If that's the case, TB would not be a good powder for that application. You're not supposed to shoot lead or copper plated in those. Only jacketed...

[CEDaytonaRydr]

I tried 20 grans of varget in a 308 very light load the wife loved it

That is VERY low for .308! Did you get that load data out of a manual or other resource?

I load more than 20grns of Varget in my .223 loads!

[stilly]

For .44, yes! As long as you're using lead or copper plated, you can pretty much use it for anything. I'm not sure it will work for 50 AE, though.

Also, it sounds like you might have a Desert Eagle that can switch between 44 and 50 AE. If that's the case, TB would not be a good powder for that application. You're not supposed to shoot lead or copper plated in those. Only jacketed...

Yeah. I have a Deagle in .44 but I am gonna be upping it to a .50 in the next few months. But right now I shoot X-treme Bullets and Rainiers. I have not and will not shoot straight lead through it. I have put close to 700+ copper plated rounds through it. No problems. So plated and jacketed are okay to use from what I can tell. When I get a hold of jacketed bullets I use them too but so far for what I do, the plated Rainiers and X-tremes have worked great. The HP bullets are especially cool. The Rainiers mushroom VERY NICELY in the dirt.

[rsrocket1]

Varget and other rifle powders are too valuable to shoot powder puff loads.
10-12 grains of Unique/Red Dot/Bullseye works great with 110g 30 cal round nose bullet. You can do the same with a standard 150g bullet and modify it up or down. No need to go above 1800 fps (recoil) or below 1100 fps (risking a stuck bullet).

Yes Bullseye is listed as a "fast" powder, but it really burns closer to Unique after its initial ignition. Quite honestly, with rifle length muzzles, most pistol/shotgun powders have completely finished combustion before the bullet exits the barrel and the amount of powder is a bigger factor than the type. I've tried Unique, Red Dot, Bullseye, Power Pistol, Clays, Titewad and they all behave about the same when using about 10 grains in a .308. Light recoil, low noise, great accuracy at 50 yards and good accuracy to 100 yards.

BTW, I can neck size the cases and crank out a bunch of these rounds on my LnL AP which makes for a lot of fun shooting with the kids with little time at the loading bench.

[ExtremeX]

I have no experience with the powder... so I have a question.

Is this mainly for revolver cartridges or will it work in 9mm and .45 ACP?

I am still waiting on my jug of W231 to come in so I can take a try at my first pistol loads, but I want to use a powder that is forgiving during the learning process…

[CEDaytonaRydr]

No, it will work in auto-loaders, so long as you are using lead or copper plated projectiles. The problem is the powder is so bulky that with jacketed bullets, you'd need to compress the hell out of the powder to get enough of it to make the velocities you want to achieve for jacketed loads.

The Desert Eagle is an issue because of the lead projectiles, not because of TB Powder. You're technically not supposed to use lead bullets in a DE because it has a direct inpingement gas system (like an AR). I guess the lead fouling can plug up the gas system and cause problems.

[CGT80]

Trail boss makes some pretty low velocity loads. In the 460 case, 11.0 grains and a 273 grain cast lead bullet will make just over 1,000 fps. I don't know if 44 mag and 50 ae will work the action of a desert eagle properly. Same goes for small semi auto pistol calibers. I have not tried it in an auto. In my revolver, I had loads in 45lc brass as slow as 550 fps.

I tried some reduced 30-06 loads with 150 grain jacketed bullets.
14.0 grains of trail boss was around 1200 fps. This was a very mild load. The muzzle report is much more quiet than a full power 30-06 load. It sounded similar to an average pistol. The recoil was the same or maybe even less than my mini 14 target model. I shot the loads from a 1926 year Winchester bolt action rifle. I think it was a model 54. It is a fairly short gun that was used in the past for hunting from horse back. I have a saddle holster for it.

13.0 grains of red dot in the 30-06 was around 1400-1500 fps. It had just a tad more recoil than the trail boss load, but I think red dot is less expensive and I have a good supply of it. It might work with less powder, but I went ahead and loaded more at 13.0. I am wondering if the red dot load will be more accurate at 100 yards than the slower trail boss load. I would like to check out Angeles range and try out their rifle steel while shooting from the bench.

I also downloaded IMR-4895 to 30.0 grains for a 150 jacketed bullet. It still feels like a big rifle, but the recoil is easy to handle. The velocity was 1580, 1672, and 1703 on the three rounds I ran over the chrono. A full power load with BL-C(2) was 2424 fps and has a hard sharp recoil. A full power load of imr-4895 feels the same. After a few handfuls of full power loads this rifle becomes less fun. My dad's 70 or 700 rifle (I don't remember the exact model-it is a bolt action), which is longer, has noticeably less recoil.

I have also tried SR 4759 in the 30-06. 32.0 grains and a 150 jacketed bullet comes out to 1785 fps. It feels and sounds the same as IMR-4895 at 30.0 grains. It has medium recoil and medium volume report.


It seems that the 30-06 is a very versatile rifle that can utilize many powders. I will stick with red dot, since it is the most affordable for me. Trail boss might be my first choice if I bought powder for the 30-06 light loads, since I use it for revolver as well. I use win 231 for pistols, so I don't really need red dot for pistols.

I have been thrilled with the versatility of Trail Boss. I can use it in almost any gun with any bullet, even without having load data. I only shoot at the range, so I rarely load hot. YMMV