Subsonic 30-30

Gatehouse

Gatehouse

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Tod Bartell shipped me some Trail Boss powder tor try out in my 30-30 bolt action.

It's a CIL model, made by Savage.

I've been intrigued by Suputins work wiht sub sonic 7.62x39 loads, and I figured the 30-30 was close enough, so i shoudl experiment a bit.

Using 5gr of this interesting looking powder called Trail Boss, and a Bullet Barn 165 gr cast flat point bullet, I would get velocities of 850fps.

At 50 yards,a 5 shot group measured 4 shots under an inch, and one flyer that opened it up to 1.5", which was probably my fault.:redface:

I was running out of light, so maybe I'll try it at 100 yards tomorrow.

The sound report was less than a 22LR HV.
 
Now that would be usefull to have along.I picked up a cartridge adapter to shoot 32acp out of my 30-30 but it is still rather loud and yours is alot more accurate for small game.
 
none said:
Now that would be usefull to have along.I picked up a cartridge adapter to shoot 32acp out of my 30-30 but it is still rather loud and yours is alot more accurate for small game.
Click to expand...

It would be interesting to find out what trail Boss can do in bottlenck cartridges.

Could it be used in a 30-06 or 7RM for instance, with 10-15gr and a cast bullet, for small game loads? IMR doesn't publish any data, so who knows?:)
 
Gatehouse

If your interested in TrailBoss loads for bottle neck cases I've done .222 .223 .308 30/06 .338 mag 416 rem mag plus the .444 and some 45/70... will post the .338 and .416 today. I posted the others a while back and just click on my user name and posts started by for the info....

Basic premise was.... fill the empty sized case of choice with Trail Boss Powder weigh the result and start at 50 % case capacity..on average all calibers peaked at about 68 % case capacity...some pressure signs came on and no further gains in velocity occurred at this point. If your not getting subsonic loads at 50 % go down from there until your chrony gets you into the 700 to 1050 fps area and see if you have some accuracy in that speed range
 
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Looks like a few guys have already played around with using it for other bottleneck cases. Why am I not surprised?:D

Should be interesting, thanks!
 
Just been out in the wind shooting that 30-30, I must say it's pretty darn fun.

My target backstop at home is a bunch of old table tops made from 2x4's. As you shoot you hear a"thwap" of the bullets hitting the target.:D

100 yard groups are running around 1.5" for 3 shots, 2" for 5 shots. Good enough for whacking yotes at 100 yards.

I fired at a couple of fir logs- they seem to penetrate about 5", then lose velocity, tumble a wee bit and stop, ending up with a bent nose. 5" or fir tree is denser than 5" of yote, I htink.:)

Really fun, this new Trail Boss is going to change up alot of stuff, IMHO.
 
I thought the penetration would be good. My tests were with the 44-40, using just enough bullseye to get the bullet out the barrel (I actually stuck one) I was using hard cast gas check bullets, and I think the load was 2 grains of bullseye.
Might have been even less.
Man a pound of powder would last a long time at that rate.
 
John, I tried a few more tests today, too.

Complete penetration n a 4.5" birch log, and then 2" into alder behind it.

I put 7 4Ltr pails of water, 9" in diameter, in a row, then a 16 litre bucket at the end.

Complete penetration of all pails, then poked a hole in one side of the bucket, but didn't penetrate into the bucket. No exit, no bullet, it must have gone skyward!:)

I'm pretty impressed wiht the penetration. There was no expansion, judging by the perfect little plastic circles I found, that looked liek they had been cut wiht a cookie cutter!:)
 
The lack of expansion doesn't matter much on small game. Interesting to see how well that long wound channel works on bigger stuff though.
I took a 100 lb doe with the 44-40 at 900 fps last year. Complete penetration, two bounds, fell over, kicked a couple of times, and dead. Range about 50 feet.
 
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