Got a wild hair and decided to play around with some Trail Boss in my 300 WSM the other day and came away pretty impressed.
I've never messed with reduced loads in anything but my 30-30 levergun before this, but I decided to try 20.0gr of Trail Boss behind a Hornady 125gr HP, seated to the cannelure.
I didn't have the chronograph out, so I don't have velocity numbers yet, but recoil was almost nonexistent and, after zeroing, they printed a surprisingly tight little 3 round group. Definitely not what I expected from a 300 WSM running such a small charge of powder with zero load development!
For comparison, this same rifle also shoots a 130gr Barnes TTSX at ~3,500 fps very well. Being able to go from an extremely mild, inexpensive plinking/training load to legitimate big game authority just by swapping my powder/bullet combo makes this rifle very interesting.
At some point I'll chrono the 125gr HP and Trail Boss load, but after these results I'm sold on the concept. It gives me a way to get a lot more trigger time behind my favorite hunting rifle without the cost and blast of full-power 300 WSM ammunition. These recoil about like my bulk 5.56 rounds but actually cost me less to shoot!
Anyone else play around with Trail Boss like this?
I've never messed with reduced loads in anything but my 30-30 levergun before this, but I decided to try 20.0gr of Trail Boss behind a Hornady 125gr HP, seated to the cannelure.
I didn't have the chronograph out, so I don't have velocity numbers yet, but recoil was almost nonexistent and, after zeroing, they printed a surprisingly tight little 3 round group. Definitely not what I expected from a 300 WSM running such a small charge of powder with zero load development!
For comparison, this same rifle also shoots a 130gr Barnes TTSX at ~3,500 fps very well. Being able to go from an extremely mild, inexpensive plinking/training load to legitimate big game authority just by swapping my powder/bullet combo makes this rifle very interesting.
At some point I'll chrono the 125gr HP and Trail Boss load, but after these results I'm sold on the concept. It gives me a way to get a lot more trigger time behind my favorite hunting rifle without the cost and blast of full-power 300 WSM ammunition. These recoil about like my bulk 5.56 rounds but actually cost me less to shoot!
Anyone else play around with Trail Boss like this?
