Anyone using Trail Boss in the 358 winchester?

[brstevens]

Have some 180 gr and 200 gr bullets that I would like to try TrailBoss with in the 358 Win. Has anyone tried it and how did it work out?

[The Old Coach]

I've never found Trail Boss to be a good powder for anything. Don't bother. If you lived near me, you could have what's left of mine for free.

I assume you mean cast? For shooting heavy cast hunting bullets at 1800+ fps from military rifles, 4895 was the gold standard for many years. 4198 would be worth a try. I've burned pounds of XMP5744 (the old kind) in .35 Remington and .30-06. There's numerous slow pistol powders that work for plain base cast in large cases. AA#9, Ramshot Enforcer, 4100 and 300-MP are being used by Schuetzen competitors who launch at 1450+/- fps. I've had some startlingly good results in 7.5x55 using Blue Dot, shooting a hard cast 180 grainer at 2200 fps in the strong K31 rifle. Some milsurp cast bullet shooters are using reduced loads of Varget, or so I've been told by one of them. For really light loads, (subsonic), Red Dot is a good choice.

Should add that there is no printed data for a lot of those powders when used in cast bullet rifles. I work everything up in Quickload before loading for range testing.

[Shooter0302]

If you asking about shooting cast you should join "cast boolits.com , you will find a load of info on shooting cast bullets.
I did a "search" there for 358 Win. The quick & easy way would be to use the Hodgdon loading data web site and use the 2 bullet Wt's and use the starting load data, starting with H & IMR 4895 , then both 4198's

Hope this helps

[yorketransport]

I've tried trail boss in just about every cartridge I can find and it's a fun powder to play with.

I used 180gr XTPs over a case full of Trail Boss as a small game load in my 358. Just fill the case up to the neck shoulder junction with powder and weigh the charge. Subtract 10% and that's where I usually just leave the charge weight. Seat the bullet so that it's seated to the base of the neck and you're good to go, just don't compress the charge. Trail Boss gets a little unpredictable when it's compressed.

It's not ideal for heavy bullets unless you have a fast twist barrel. The lower velocity will result in poorly stabilized bullets in most cases. We tried 300gr Bergers in a suppressed 338 Federal AR10 and they just won't stabilize with a standard twist rate at the low velocity. 200 gr bullets worked really well though.