TrailBoss: Dillon powder measure difficult metering?

[rnbra-shooter]

I tried working with TrailBoss powder yesterday and am a bit stumped. Is it known to be a difficult-metering powder?

I was trying to get a Dillon powder measure (with "pistol" charge bar) set up to throw 3.4 grains of TrailBoss for some .45 ACP. The charge weights varied from 3.2 to 3.5 grains, which on the one hand is only a 0.3 grain spread, but on the other hand is 10% of the charge weight(!!) - which is the difference between the desired load, more recoil that preferable, and a failure to cycle the action.

I also tried it through my Redding BR-30, and it too produced similar spreads in throw weight.

Is this just the way that it is with TrailBoss, or are there any known "fixes"?

 

[kombayotch]

Yep... That stuff doesn't meter accurately. Works out of a Chargemaster pretty well though.

 

[tjhaile]

Try using the large charge bar. I recently put together some .44 Magnum reduced loads with Trail Boss using the same charge bar setting I use for 22.0 grains of H110 for my full power loads. As I recall, it threw about 6 grains of Trail Boss and was accurate to +/- 0.1 grain.

Failing that, here are some tweaks you can do to improve your powder measure operation:
http://forums.1911forum.com/showthread.php?t=154783

 

[gw]

Try using the large charge bar. I recently put together some .44 Magnum reduced loads with Trail Boss using the same charge bar setting I use for 22.0 grains of H110 for my full power loads. As I recall, it threw about 6 grains of Trail Boss and was accurate to +/- 0.1 grain.

Failing that, here are some tweaks you can do to improve your powder measure operation:
http://forums.1911forum.com/showthread.php?t=154783

I also use the large charge bar when loading trail boss on my 650 and get consistent throws

 

[rnbra-shooter]

I'm trying to throw only 3.4 grains of TrailBoss - do you think it's worth trying the large charge bar on such a small charge? (I'll have to see how far down it'll adjust..!)

Thanks for the hints,