Powder Selection

[Johnny McCrae]

From the beginning I've been using Trail Boss for every cartidge I reload with the following exceptions, Clay's for my shotgun Shells and Winchester 231 for my 380 ACP rounds.

My 1873 Uberti Winchester in chambered in .45 Colt and my 1866 is in .38 Special. Trail Boss in my 1873 seems to be very dirty as compared to my 1866. Is there another powder I should consider for my 1873? If I had to do it over again, I would have got the 1873 in .44-40 WCF. I have an 1892 EMF Winchester in .44-40 and cleanup is a snap even with Black Powder.

Here are some of the other rounds I load with Trail Boss:
.38 Special, .44 Colt, .44-40 WCF, .45 Schofield, .45 ACP and .45-70 Govt.
Any suggestions as to other powder to try on the above rounds.

[Coal Creek Griff]

There may be better choices, but here is my experience. I have used W231 in 38 Spl, 45 ACP, 44 WCF, 45 Schofield and 45 Colt. I currently use Unique for 44 WCF and it is a good choice for 45 Colt too. I use Re7 for 45-70. Re7 gives good velocity in 44WCF, but does leave some unburned powder in my rifle barrel.

There are many choices for those cartridges.  Those are some of my experiences.

CC Griff

[Shotgun Franklin]

I use Red Dot, I do not shoot light loads. My CAS loads are also my carry and hunting loads. When I used Trail Boss I had to clean after each Shoot, now not so much.

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[Charles B Gatewood]

Howdy Johnny,
Unfortunately that is the nature of the big straight walled cases and TB. I shoot TB in both rifle and pistol and yup it can get sooty. That said, I've never had trouble going 3-4 matches without cleaning. YMMV. One thing you might try is to make sure and put a good crimp on those .45 cases. It helps, but it will still be dirty.

Best Regards,
CBG

[Jefro]

I use Red Dot, I do not shoot light loads. My CAS loads are also my carry and hunting loads. When I used Trail Boss I had to clean after each Shoot, now not so much.

Ditto......I use Red Dot for all my smokeless stuff. I do use some Clays for different shotshell loads, but Red Dot could easily replace those too. Good Luck


Jefro Relax-Enjoy

[Johnny McCrae]

Howdy Gents,

Many thanks for your input. I'm going to try some of your suggestions and let you know the results. CAS City is sure a great place to get help and sound advice on a great variety of subjects!

[Southpaw]

I use Unique and it really is cleaner than it used to be. I load cowboy loads and never really had any fouling issues..Southpaw

[onegunred]

I use Universal Clays, it meters well and is as clean or cleaner than most. Loads are comparable to Unique.

[Sir Charles deMouton-Black]

TITEGROUP is great for lighter loads in large cases.

[Cliff Fendley]

Another vote for titegroup. That's what I use for 45 colt side match loads. My model P's shoot better groups with it. I still like Trail Boss for most smokeless CAS I do.

[rickk]

Unique wont work in all of them, but it will work in most of them, and may work out to be cheaper per round than Trailboss.

Unique was MADE FOR the 45 colt... hard to go wrong there.

[Johnny McCrae]

Howdy Gents,
I greatly appreciate all of your input. I have W231 and Clays on hand. I'm going to see if some of my friends have any Red Dot, Unique or Titegroup they can spare for me to try out.  It will be interesting to go to the range with a bunch of different loads to try out. I will keep you all posted on my results.

[Ramblin Ron]

Clays is a good choice since you have the powder on hand..
I've used Clays (Hodgdon Clays) for 38 special cowboy loads for years with good results. A little powder goes a long way. My typical set-up is 3.0 gr for 115 gr bullets and 2.8 gr for 130 gr bullets with the bullets being lead RNFP. I've loaded my son's 45 colt cowboy loads using 5.9 gr Clays and 200gr RNFP bullets. 

[Crow Choker]

I've found to that TrailBoss is alot dirtier burning than some of the other powders I've used and still load with. It fills the case though when large capacity cases such as the 45 Colt are being loaded-one of the selling points of it. I've used all of the powders posted except Clays and found them to work very well. Unique can be a little 'dirtier' than the others, but the newer stuff is better than the old. Red Dot in the 45 Colt is a favorite, 6.0 grains works real well with either conical or SWC bullets. I started using Hodgdon's Titegroup around maybe 3 yrs ago for the 45 Colt and have had good results. One of Hodgdon's selling pts on it is that it was developed not to be sensitive to powder position in large cases such as the 45 Colt, 5.0-6.0 grains of it works well. Win. 231 or Hodgdon HP-38 will work, but they are better in the 45 ACP, suppose to be a little more case sensitive to powder position. Still load TrailBoss in the 45 Colt due to my personal 'glich' of liking to load using a variety of powders, never settling on one or two, even though I've tried 'to clean up my act'! 

[Cliff Fendley]

I've used Clays in the 38 special with good results.

[Johnny McCrae]

Picked up a bottle of Unique today to try out in addition to the W231 and Clays on hand.

Had to wait in line one half hour to get to the checkout counter at Cabella's. I've never seen anything like it!

[Crow Choker]

Ifin' I had only one pistol powder to load with, me thinks it would be Unique. They named it right, it's 'Unique' to most all calibers. Will work even in some reduced rifle loads from the .223 to the 30/06 and beyond!!! I've used it in 303 British, 30/06, and 8mm Mauser loads with cast lead bullets(also Red Dot).

[joec]

I love trailboss in both my 45 colt and  45-70 modern lever gun for plinking and target shooting. I've used Unique, Universal Clays, TiteGroup, Bullseye, AA#2 and HP-38 as well as black powder by various makers. My 45-70 for working loads depending on the bullet, I use IMR 3031, IMR 4198 and RL-7. My 45 Colt Rossi Rifle I use a 290 to 300 gr bullet with Lil'Gun. I use Clays and Black Powder in my shot guns. Trailboss is a bit sooty but compared to black powder it is fairly clean and no need I've found to clean until the end of the day. I find Unique about the same also.

[Johnny McCrae]

Allant's website say's 9.5 grains of Unique for a 200 grain LSWC in a .45 Colt round. I'm using a 200 grain RNFP and thought I'd start out with 9.0 grains on Unique.

IMR's website say's 5.9 grains of W231 and 4.6 grains of Clays as starting loads for 200 grain RNFP .45 Colt rounds. Currently I put 5.7 grains of Trail Boss in my 200 grain RNFP .45 Colt rounds.

I'm going to load some up later on today.

[Coal Creek Griff]

The Lyman manual #49 starts W231 at 7.4 grains with a max of 8.3. For Clays, they give 5.6 as a start and 6.3 as a max with a 200 grain lead bullet. 

CC Griff