Trailboss .308 loads

[Ol 55]

I would be measuring the dia of them just incase they are a bit big, I should have some fmj here some where that i have pulled from military if you are getting your daughter used to the rifle,
Cheers
Ol 55

[lowndsie]

Well I was waiting for a phone call back from ACP but that doesn't look like its going to happen so I went ahead and loaded a few up with 12gr and magnum primers.

I was getting an average of 1160fps. Very little recoil and I could see the bullet strikes. Heaps of fun! The POI difference from my 165gr hunting load is 14 inches lower.

Groups unfortunately are hitting the 3 inch mark at 100 but in all honestly, it could be just the crappy pills rather than the load itself.

Anyways, I was having so much fun that I got to thinking about using it for hunting and was curious if anyone could recommend a pill that might open up at these sorts of velocities. I'll probably stoke the load up a fraction but not sure how much as yet. Thinking of game around the size of a medium goat.

[JasonF]

The Hornady AMax seems to have a good reputation in that role but I don't have personal experience with them going slow on game.

[mick_762]

What about 130/150gn 30-30 pills?

[stinkitup]

I think generally around the max load in most cases is still very light on so no real point running half loads with trail boss. Sounds like fun always wanted to play with some. Might have to grab some for the 358.

[Seddo]

The Hornady AMax seems to have a good reputation in that role but I don't have personal experience with them going slow on game.

208's are great but not sure about the lighter ones.

[Jmc]

What is the best large rifle primer for traiboss? Read u can get different results with normal and magnum primers?

[lowndsie]

From what I read, most people are recommending magnum primers. Some are even drilling out the flash hole to a larger diameter.

[Ken Melgaard]

The 208 grain Hornady projectiles won't work in a std 10 twist 308 need an 9 or 8 twist barrel to get them yo stabilise, did some work with a gunsmith developing sub sonic loads loads for deer culling in NSW parks the gunsmith built rifles with 1:9 twist barrels, using silencers!! They worked very well
When l worked at Thales, l did a lot of the Trail a Boss testing and you don't need a magnum primers, or even drill out primer pockets, it's a fast burning very porous powder, (similar burn rate to AS-30N) which ignites very easy, and therefore develops chamber pressure quickly. It was designed as a bulky pistol powder that fill up a 38 Special or 45 Long Colt, case with out producing dangerous pressures, in the event of an over load/double load, when using progressive loaders.
Then Hodgdon Powder, did more testing with it and found that it worked great for reduced loads in rifle cartridges.

[Jmc]

Are the amax a hunting bullet or target ?

[Camel]

Are the amax a hunting bullet or target ?

Both from what I have read.

[trevort]

Lowndsie I see you are a member of the facebook reloading group I just joined. So is ACP and Mark Savage......


I bought mine on AHN with some other stuff. Havent even opened the packet yet.


I hope they work in my rifle. I'm thinking they would be tough enough to reliably get into the chest cavity of a goat sized animal at 300m because there would be no holdover required.

What does the ethics committee think?

Smee, where are you when I need you

[lowndsie]

Sure am mate. Last spoke to mark a couple weeks ago and sent him that pic. He was going to ring me but nothing as yet. Unfortunately from what i hear thats about the norm.

They'd probably work fine on goats if you pick your shots. Ive shot a few with 40gr noslers from the 222. They should hold together. The ones i tested blew the petals off in the first inch of wet newspaper and the base was basically a fmj from then on.

[Tackleberry]

The 208 grain Hornady projectiles won't work in a std 10 twist 308 need an 9 or 8 twist barrel to get them yo stabilise, did some work with a gunsmith developing sub sonic loads loads for deer culling in NSW parks the gunsmith built rifles with 1:9 twist barrels, using silencers!! They worked very well
When l worked at Thales, l did a lot of the Trail a Boss testing and you don't need a magnum primers, or even drill out primer pockets, it's a fast burning very porous powder, (similar burn rate to AS-30N) which ignites very easy, and therefore develops chamber pressure quickly. It was designed as a bulky pistol powder that fill up a 38 Special or 45 Long Colt, case with out producing dangerous pressures, in the event of an over load/double load, when using progressive loaders.
Then Hodgdon Powder, did more testing with it and found that it worked great for reduced loads in rifle cartridges.

i thought it was designed for blanks in rifle cartridges

[Seddo]

The 208 grain Hornady projectiles won't work in a std 10 twist 308 need an 9 or 8 twist barrel to get them yo stabilise, did some work with a gunsmith developing sub sonic loads loads for deer culling in NSW parks the gunsmith built rifles with 1:9 twist barrels, using silencers!! They worked very well
When l worked at Thales, l did a lot of the Trail a Boss testing and you don't need a magnum primers, or even drill out primer pockets, it's a fast burning very porous powder, (similar burn rate to AS-30N) which ignites very easy, and therefore develops chamber pressure quickly. It was designed as a bulky pistol powder that fill up a 38 Special or 45 Long Colt, case with out producing dangerous pressures, in the event of an over load/double load, when using progressive loaders.
Then Hodgdon Powder, did more testing with it and found that it worked great for reduced loads in rifle cartridges.

i thought it was designed for blanks in rifle cartridges

It was designed for cowboys, they shoot loads with almost no powder so the bulky powder makes that safer. Unlike most other pistol comps that have a minimum power factor (bullet weight X velocity) the Cowboys have a maximum velocity. When you watch them it's like they are shooting primer only ammo as there is bugger all noise and no recoil for most shooters.