IMR Trail Boss for .308win

[skidmark]

I'm sure this has been asked before and I do see IMR's published data
using TB for reduced loads in .308 win. My question is has anyone here
have any experience loading with it. I have been wanting to try it for a
long time and now have the powder. Yes I will only single load them as
this gun has a 26" tube and watch for squibs. I want some thing around
1200 with 165's or 168's. Anybody care to throw in their 2 Cents.
I'm not sensitive fire away.

 

[Thebear_78]

I have loaded a lot of 150 bts @ 1200fps and 173 gr cast rngc @ 1075fps. I used the starting load of 10gr. They have proven very accurate and mild. Here is a video of my buddies daughter shooting it. 17.25" encore barrel. As you can see it's very low recoil.

http://s9.photobucket.com/user/Thebear_ ... 3.mp4.html

 

[skidmark]

That's what I am wanting to see !
Did you drill out the flash hole ?

 

[Thebear_78]

I didn't do anything special, loaded it like any other powder. If you can get a line on cheap bullets it's almost as cheap as 22 lr. I like it because they get used to the same rifle, trigger, and sight picture as the big game rifle. My son will break clay pigeons all day long on the 100 yard berm with these loads. Really helps to work them into full power loads and field positions.

I have also used some trail boss loads in 270 with 90gr bullets and 7x57 with150s to help transition my buddies wife and daughter used to their rifles. It makes a good load to throw in occasionally to test for flinching. My buddies wife started flinching and we discovered that doubling up plugs and muffs helped to break tgat habit.


You get a lot of loads from a pound of powder too!

 

[skidmark]

I too want to use it to allow my daughter 13 to get use
to shooting the .308. I am loading some today and we will try
them at the club. I'll post the results once I get it dialed up for
her. Thanks for your reply.

 

[kraky]

I've played with it in a bunch of calibers....its fun...puts a smile on everyone's face.
It can also be used to download bullets to check for expansion at low impact speeds.
Be prepared to crank your scope up about 8" at 100 yds.....maybe even a hair more.
Bullets like the 110 vmax are awesome in any 30 Cal!
Haven't shot em yet but got a bunch of those loaded for my contender 3030 pistol...hoping I can lee collect neck die the brass out of that for fast reloading.

 

[skidmark]

Well I have shot 4 strings starting at 10gr working up to 11.5
Velocities were pretty much as IMR posted. Only problem is
none of the loads stabilized my 165 BT's. All these strings were
from 50yds. From the photos you can see they continued to keyhole.
No recoil to speak of and fairly quite. My daughter will have no
problem shooting these. I guess I will continue the weight chgs.
up to the published max of 14gr and see if they stabilize. The
barrel is 1:12 twist 26 " somewhere I have seen a formula to predict
bullet stabilization for weight, twist, and speed...maybe somebody knows it
and I can work out a minimum velocity for the 165's.

 

[Thebear_78]

I have a 1-10 twist on my encore barrel, it seems to stabilize everything I have tried yet. You might look into getting some 110 gr RN designed for the .30 carbine, I imagine those would stabilize just fine.

http://www.midwayusa.com/product/116541 ... uctFinding

 

[jason miller]

What's your elevation relative to sea level? It's pretty easy to plug the numbers in and see how stable to bullet should be. There's a simple one on Berger's website, if you want to play with it yourself.

 

[jason miller]

Berger's scale shows anything that calculates to less than 1.0 as unstable, anything over 1.4 as comfortably stable, and anywhere in between as marginally stable. Using sea level, 60 degrees ambient temp, and 1050 fps, the 165 ballistic tip registers 1.04 from a 1:12 twist. Faster muzzle velocity and less dense air will help. I'd try speeding them up a bit and maybe shooting on a warmer day. If that doesn't work, you'll have to switch to a shorter bullet.

 

[skidmark]

Thanks Jason that is what I was looking for.
Looks like 150gr partitions with their short OAL
of 1.100 will fly for me. Its 85 deg here and we are
760msl.

 

[Thebear_78]

If you can find some cast .308 cal bullets they are generally very short and cheaper than partitions. The 173gr cast bullets I was using where RNGC designed for 30-30.

 

[skidmark]

Did you crimp the cast bullets?

 

[Thebear_78]

No, but they were all single fed into the singleshot encore

 

[Darkhorse]

Skidmark, Good luck finding "less dense" air where your shooting for the next few months.
I've got some more load development to do and I've got to watch the weather close when I plan my range days. I'll loading for near max. hunting loads and our atmospheric conditions can make it tricky at times.

 

[SJB358]

Great topic. I might need to find some Trail Boss again and give it a shot in some of the big guns! Might be a blast in the Whelen with pistol bullets.

 

[jason miller]

Higher temperature and, surprisingly, higher humidity, both make the air "less dense." So summer is definitely the time to shoot marginally stable loads.

I've used trail boss in a .243 with 75 grain hornady bullets with very good success. Impact was 6" low at 100 yards, but it 13 grains shot into well under an inch at around 1800 fps muzzle velocity. Unfortunately, even those bullets didn't expand reliably when hitting the dirt bank behind that 100 yards target. I would advise using the most frangible bullets possible if shooting trail boss loads at an animal.

The load procedure is pretty simple: fill a case with trail boss to the point where it is 100% load density with a seated bullet (basically, filled to near the shoulder/neck junction), weight that charge, reduce it to 70% of whatever that charge's weight was, and start there. Don't get near a compressed load, because trail boss can generate some funky/dangerous pressure when compressed.

 

[Oldtrader3]

If you can find one of the older Lyman loading manuals (used), they all list reduced loads for many calibers. You should be able to find some loads in their for 100 or 110 grain .308 bullets that will stabilize and have little or no recoil.

 

[skidmark]

I have several old boxes of Sierra .30 cal
110gr PSP that my father would load for his
M1 carbine. The look short seating them could
be tricky. I 'll try a few and see how it goes.

 

[skidmark]

Skidmark, Good luck finding "less dense" air where your shooting for the next few months.
I've got some more load development to do and I've got to watch the weather close when I plan my range days. I'll loading for near max. hunting loads and our atmospheric conditions can make it tricky at times.

This would probably explain why I had the rifle range all to myself on a Saturday afternoon,
Middle Ga weather is 30 one day and 90 the next. :wink: