My first Trail Boss Loads for 223rem

[sandgroperbill]

Just won't die. You think it's dead but it keeps coming back

[Gwion]

Yeah, Baby!

Nolser 55gn Ballistic Tip Varmint with CCI 400 primer & 8.3gn Trailboss out of a friends Tikka = roughly MOA or maybe a bit tighter 100m (approx).

Zmax 50gn with CCI 450 (small rifle magnum) primer and 8.1gn of Trailboss out of my FrankenZastava = well inside MOA @ 100m.

B&T VarmintR 40n with CCI450 & 8.3gn Trailboss = roughly MOA. To get the VarmintR shooting ok in my rifle, i had to do some batch sorting and they still arent the greatest in my rifle, so i'll keep them for when i (eventually) finish this WildCat build. Thinking i need a 1:14twist barrel for that project.

So, i'm going to load up a heap of Zmax 50gn with SRM primers and 8.1gn of Trailboss. SIghted dead on at my (approximate) 100m gives me 1" high @50m (approx).

The Small Rifle Magnum primers certainly seemed to help with a consistent burn. Accuracy was all round more consistent and the ES & SD on Brett's Chrony where all well down. I'll collate my data and post a bit later.

Thanks Brett. Your chrony will be in the post sometime this week. It has been very handy and i owe you a beer or ten.

Happy that things are finally working well.

edit: corrected load data; see screw up below

[Gwion]

And here is today's load and Chrony Data:

Series 26 Shots: 5
Min 1813 Max 1871
Avg 1850 S-D 25
ES 58
Trailboss 7.9gn Primer CCI450
Bullet Hornady Zmax 50gn

26 1 1866 ft/s
26 2 1871 ft/s
26 3 1813 ft/s
26 4 1865 ft/s
26 5 1835 ft/s
---- ---- ---- ----
Series 27 Shots: 6
Min 1850 Max 1877
Avg 1862 S-D 12.3
ES 27
Trailboss 8.1gn Primer CCI450
Bullet Hornady Zmax 50gn

27 1 1855 ft/s
27 2 1877 ft/s
27 3 1862 ft/s
27 4 1851 ft/s
27 5 1850 ft/s
27 6 1877 ft/s
---- ---- ---- ----
Series 28 Shots: 5
Min 2066 Max 2129
Avg 2098 S-D 23.6
ES 63
Trailboss 8.1gn Primer CCI450
Bullet B&T Energetics VarmintR 40gn

28 2 2102 ft/s
28 3 2129 ft/s
28 4 2066 ft/s
28 5 2108 ft/s
---- ---- ---- ----
Series 29 Shots: 4
Min 2113 Max 2143
Avg 2127 S-D 13.7
ES 30
Trailboss 8.3gn Primer CCI400
Bullet B&T Energetics VarmintR 40gn

29 1 2143 ft/s
29 2 2134 ft/s
29 3 2119 ft/s
29 4 2113 ft/s
---- ---- ---- ----
Series 30 Shots: 5
Min 3027 Max 3104
Avg 3064 S-D 29.1
ES 77
BM8208 26.2gn Primer CCI400
Bullet B&T Energetics VarmintR 40gn

30 1 3047 ft/s
30 2 3104 ft/s
30 3 3070 ft/s
30 4 3074 ft/s
30 5 3027 ft/s
---- ---- ---- ----

edit: corrected load data; see screw up below

[Gwion]

BTW: I also managed to squeeze a little more space out of my magazine, so i can load to about 20thou off the lands and the feed issue seems to be sorted. Took most of yesterday arvo screwing around with the rifle to make sure everything was kosher: scope,check, bedding, check... etc, etc.

Touch wood; it will now keep plugging them where i want them. I have 12 full loads left at about 3100fps, but they are shooting between 1.5 & 1MOA, so i don't think i'll load any more of them and will focus on the Zmax 50gn Trailboss load for pest control.

[Gwion]

CHeers mate. There's even some rain falling now, so all is good.

[Gwion]

Dammit!
I had moved my scales before the last loading session and had not recalibrated them.

They were 1.1gn over. Just loaded 5 rounds and tested them at 50m. With the 'low flier' the group was 0.508". with out the flier, the other 4 bullets made two holes about 3mm apart. I will go back and edit the data to show the true load value. This was actually 8.1gn of Trailboss with CCI#450 primer.

Note to self: DON'T FORGET TO CALIBRATE SCALES BEFORE EACH SESSION!!!
Lucky i wasn't loading full charge loads and that they weren't reading under!!!

[Gwion]

Below is a drop chart based on a 50gn Zmax leaving the barrel at 1862fps with the atmospheric conditions of the day i tested this load: 8.1gn TrailBoss, 18" barrel, 223rem, with a 100yd zero.

This gives me 120m point & shoot range on my particular pest species (allowing 1.5" high/low). You can see that at this point it starts dropping very quickly indeed. My paddocks are pretty familiar, so i have an idea of range from certain vantage points. 160m will be absolute outside and require using the 2nd stadia on my BDC reticle, around 140m will be 1st stadia. I have sighted dead on at 100yd and it's shooting just on 1MOA. I'll be doing a bit of a run tonight.

By the way, hope some of you find this useful in someway but i'm really using it as a reminder/record for myself as much as anything.

Another note: for some reason, shooting with my scope mounted torch dropped POI about 1/2" compared to POA zeroed with no torch mounted. I have re-zeroed with torch mounted.


R Drop 0° Wind Velocity TioF Energy
M Inches MOA FPS Sec Foot lbs
10 1.03 2.140 1833 0.016 373
20 0.43 0.660 1801 0.034 360
30 0.05 0.010 1769 0.053 347
40 0.40 0.450 1738 0.072 335
50 0.62 0.830 1708 0.091 323
60 0.70 1.170 1677 0.110 312
70 0.63 1.490 1648 0.130 301
80 0.41 1.790 1618 0.150 290
90 0.04 2.100 1589 0.171 280
100 0.51 2.400 1561 0.192 270
110 1.23 2.700 1533 0.213 261
120 2.13 3.000 1505 0.235 251
130 3.23 3.300 1478 0.257 242
140 4.52 3.600 1451 0.279 234
150 6.02 3.900 1425 0.302 225
160 7.49 4.000 1402 0.324 218

EDIT, PS: i can't seem to paste a table or make the chart more legible.

[VICHunter]

That's the first time I've heard Z-Max in a while. I thought the zombie phase might have finally passed.

They've been doing zombie movies for 80 years, it's not going anywhere

[Baronvonrort]

EDIT, PS: i can't seem to paste a table or make the chart more legible.

It's all good we can figure it out.

Brass life should be pretty good with lower pressures from Trail Boss

[Supporter]

Yeah you could expect a few dozen reloads with it.

[Gwion]

Yep. It will still need occasional annealing because the work of the sizing die embrittles the brass. It's this and not just high pressures that cause neck splits. Cases should last ages if annealed periodically.

[Gwion]

Also developed a load for a mate's Tikka with 55gn Nosler Ballistic Tip Varmints (orange tip). CCI 400 primer, 8.4gn Trailboss. He's happy with it shooting around the inch at 110m.

[Gregg]

Cases should last ages if annealed periodically.

I'd have to dig it up but I think the highest I know is 64 loads by a match shooter with a serious annealing kit set up.

Talk about making the most out of them.

[Gwion]

Cases should last ages if annealed periodically.

I'd have to dig it up but I think the highest I know is 64 loads by a match shooter with a serious annealing kit set up.

Talk about making the most out of them.

Bloody hell! I'd be happy to get a dozen or so!

[Rakk]

I couldn't find it, too generic for Google I guess but I recall that might have been one of the 6mmBR guys.

[Gwion]

Righto. Still, you would need to be regularly annealing. The act of sizing would work harden the neck/shoulder and cause splits, etc. Case body would last ages, i would think.

Finally tested this TB load on a cull with a mate who keeps saying the 223 is too loud. He was very surprised by how quiet it is and the effectiveness of a varmint bullet at 1850fps as opposed to a lead bullet at 1200-1600fps. The nieghbour, 3-400m away, didn't hear it. Shots out to 100m and as close as 30m, clean kills. Will be loading a bunch more of these; might need to order another 500 Zmax.

[inervate]

The act of sizing would work harden the neck/shoulder and cause splits, etc. Case body would last ages, i would think.

Most commonly yep. You do still get body-only failures though.

1938-turkish-ball-ammo.jpg (43.84 KiB) Viewed 7135 times

[Gwion]

The act of sizing would work harden the neck/shoulder and cause splits, etc. Case body would last ages, i would think.

Most commonly yep. You do still get body-only failures though.

1938-turkish-ball-ammo.jpg

OOh! Are those low pressure/velocity Trailboss Loads?
If so, how many firings before that lovely mess???

[deadkitty]

Also developed a load for a mate's Tikka with 55gn Nosler Ballistic Tip Varmints (orange tip). CCI 400 primer, 8.4gn Trailboss. He's happy with it shooting around the inch at 110m.

A quick note of thanks Gwion for your Trail Boss info on 50gr Zmax loads, I tried out two loads 8grs and 8.5 grs this morning under what could best be described as a slightly breezy crosswind. The results look promising and still need tweaking. Currently using CCI 400 primers. Cheers

[Gwion]

No worries DK.
I found the 450 primers definitely made the load more consistent.

[deadkitty]

Thanks Gwion, I have a box of the 450's my LGS sold me by mistake, I'll give them a try. Cheers