Trailboss Powder in a 44-40 

Oct 11, 2005

"I finally found some Trail Boss powder. I spoke to Hodgdon and they gave me a distributor in the NE who received some of the first lot. The distributor gave me the names of a few of the gunshops in PA that received some.....success!

Hodgdon's recommended load is 6.5 grs. with a 200 gr. cast bullet for 826 f.p.s. @ 11,900 C.U.P.  My normal loads using Blue Dot, 2400, or 4227, and will group into 1 1/2"- 2" @ 50 yards if I do my part.

Not so with TB. I tried 4 different primers and the best it would do was a 5" group. Three of the 5 shots would normally be inside of 3" but in every case, the other 2 shots would open the group up into the 5"+ range. Velocity was just under 1,000 f.p.s.

I may try going up .5 gr and see what happens. That would be the most I would care to try in the '73.

MAYBE, sometime in the future there will be a Trail Boss II that will burn more slowly so that it will give original b.p. ballistics with a case full of powder at similar pressure." ~John Kort