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COLUMNS

September/ 2010

John Taffin

Trail Bossin' The Really Big Bores

By my definition sixguns are divided into four categories. The .22s and .32s are small bores, the .38 Special and .357 Magnum are medium bores, the .41s, .44s and .45s are classified as big bores — anything above .45 becomes a really big bore. These latter .48 and .50 caliber cartridges feature heavy bullets from 300 to 400-plus grains, magnum-style muzzle velocities, and the necessary attendant heavy recoil. Heavy enough, in fact, to make the .44 Magnum seem like a .38 Special. They are all special-purpose cartridges designed for one thing: big game hunting.

When Cowboy Action Shooting started in my area more than 25 years ago, we mostly shot black powder .45 Colt loads or smokeless powder loads at the same level. All was right and everyone was happy. But then what was fun turned into something more serious as more and more shooters began trying to get lighter and lighter loads out of the .45 Colt. Hodgdon/IMR spent five years coming up with the proper powder, which would allow light loads using cast bullets to be assembled safely. That powder is Trail Boss, and it’s unlike anything else out there.

At least once a week someone posts on the Internet they have been loading Trail Boss and they “can’t get any velocity out of it!” That’s the whole point of this powder. It’s not made for high velocity loads, just the opposite. The purpose of Trail Boss is to be able to load relatively light loads, with no danger of an overload.

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