unique or trail boss in 45 colt

[ruger438]

loading some light loads  6.5 grn unique with 200 grn hornady swaged bullet. Loads "squib" fire and the bullet sticks in the barrel. If I tilt the gun up to get powder back against the primer everything works fine. Lyman actually lists this load with a round ball,  can't believe they didnt have the same problem.
 The question is how much heavier do I need to go to get away from this.
The reason I am going so light , I have a Kirst Konverter cylinder in my 1858 rem and don't want to stress the frame too much with a steady diet of heavier loads. Shooting factory cowboy action loads has been a hoot, but want to load my own at around 700 fps with these 200 grn bullets, I have a pile of 'em laying around.
 I would like to stay with unique, I don't need more powders laying around and unique is my favorite in 44 mag and 12 ga.
 If not, anyone have any experience with Trail boss in 45 colt? Impressions?

[Jerry Lester]

I load just a limited few 45 Colts for a friend of mine. I use 9 grains of Unique with a 200g JHP, which is a fairly light load, but stouter than any Cowboy loads I've seen. Even as low as 8 grains we never had ignition problems with standard primers.

I haven't tried Trail Boss in the 45, but it's the best thing I've ever seen in light 32 magnum loads. With a 97g-98g cast SWC, 2.5g gives me about 750 fps with very low noise, and hardly any recoil. I can't help but think if you're looking for a similar 45 Colt load, Trail Boss would be very hard to beat. It's very clean burning, easy to ignite, meters very consistently, and fills the cases better than any of the other fast burners.

[dubber123]

  Jerry's got it pegged, Trailboss is probably your best bet.  It has worked very well in all calibers I have tried it in.

[Lloyd Smale]

your loading loads in your 45 colt that are borderline  to light for effecient use of unique. Id but the bottom end with that powder at about 7.5 grains with a 200. Youd be better off switching to bullseye or trying tightgroup or titewad as both of these powders were designed to not be case position sensitive. Trail boss would be another good one but in all my testing of it i just havent got the gilt edge accuracy out of it that i want. But if its just for plinking loads out of your convesion it would work fine.

[Luckyducker]

A friend of mine is getting into CAS and is using Trailboss in his 45's with 250 grain LRN bullets.  We chronographed his load and got right at 700 ft/sec out of his Ruger Vaquero.  He has installed the Wolff spring kit for lighter hammer pull and trigger let-off and doesn't experience any mis-fires.  He told me how much TB he is using in his loads but I just don't remember.

[fastbike]

I've loaded 6.4 gn of Titegroup w/ 200 gr Laser Cast LRN w/ no problem. This load is a little stronger than a Cowboy load, but still moderate for a non-Ruger.  Titegroup claims to be insensitive to powder position. Trail Boss would probably solve your problem

loading some light loads  6.5 grn unique with 200 grn hornady swaged bullet. Loads "squib" fire and the bullet sticks in the barrel. If I tilt the gun up to get powder back against the primer everything works fine. Lyman actually lists this load with a round ball,  can't believe they didnt have the same problem.
 The question is how much heavier do I need to go to get away from this.
The reason I am going so light , I have a Kirst Konverter cylinder in my 1858 rem and don't want to stress the frame too much with a steady diet of heavier loads. Shooting factory cowboy action loads has been a hoot, but want to load my own at around 700 fps with these 200 grn bullets, I have a pile of 'em laying around.
 I would like to stay with unique, I don't need more powders laying around and unique is my favorite in 44 mag and 12 ga.
 If not, anyone have any experience with Trail boss in 45 colt? Impressions?

[PlacitasSlim]

I load Trail Boss in .45 colt for the ex. I put 5.5gr behind a Lasercast 200gr and standard primer. It is a low recoil and accurate load. I used to use Unique, but she much prefers the Trail Boss load.

[ruger438]

thank everybody for the replies.
 I think I'll load 8 grains unique until I can get to the store to get trail boss. Slim, that 5.5 grain load of TB looks like a good starting point according to IMR's load data site.
  I did consider titgroup, but did like the safety factor in Trail Boss to reduce danger of double charging.  Titegroup would probably would be cheaper to shoot though.
 As for accuracy, primary use is plinking, although I like to carry a revolver when groundhog hunting with a rifle for the close shots and dangerous groundhog charges, etc. In cap and ball guise the remington has accounted for several groundhogs that way.  In reality my pistol skills probably can't tell the diffence in accuracy of most loads anyway.

[PaulS]

You could always load at half grain increments until your squib problem disappeared. Try a few loads at 7 and 7.5 and see if you have the same problem. Make sure your powder is away from the primer by pointing the gun down before each shot. if you run into another squib load you just move up half a grain and try again.