Pumpkin Spice Frappu-Shoot-O:
The Great Pumpkin Reload

It’s the season for fall reloads. How about some Pumpkin Spice to make the range smell festive?

Starbucks doesn’t get it. At all.

Every year when the leaves start changing, they make a big deal about their half-full-double-caf-decaf pumpkin spice mocha Frappuccino lattes, but I’d venture a guess that they don’t know anything about reloading for the fall season.

Don’t worry, you’re in good hands. Not only are we going to show those pansy clowns how to make a proper fall reload, we’re going to introduce them to the virtues of high volume / low energy per cubic whatever powder.

The Boss of Powders

IMR’s Trail Boss is the boss of fun powders. After all, right on the canister, it says it’s preferred by sheriffs and outlaws. You can’t beat that.

The other thing it says on the Trail Boss label is that it’s specifically designed for low-velocity lead bullets. For example, Cowboy Action shooters appreciate the speed of shooting ultra-low-recoil ammo, but as we’ll see in a minute, it’s flexible for much, much more.

If I had to describe its special and unique purpose. (and I’m going to apologize in advance to their marketing people), I think this observation is accurate and not at all an insult.

It is a weak powder for its volume.

That’s nothing bad. In fact, it’s designed to be that way. What I mean is simply this: A lot of volume in this powder generates relatively little pressure and fiery bang. This is a great feature for those situations where you want to fill up a case for safety and consistency purposes, but limit your pressure and resulting velocities.

Easy Loading

In the .38 Special Load we’re talking about today, I’m using 3.3 grains of Trail Boss powder paired with a 128-grain lead projectile. Going by eyeball, this powder charge fills up a hair over half of the .38 Special case. That’s a great thing. It is virtually impossible to double-charge or dangerously overcharge a cartridge with that kind of low density — you literally cannot fit a double charge in the case, and it’s tough to stuff even a significant overcharge in there. And an added benefit is that it’s easy to see once in the case, so there’s no ambiguity over whether a proper charge is present. Whether using trays and a single-stage press or a progressive press, the visual charge check is easy.

One of the safety benefits is its volume. Even low charges fill up much of the case, so it’s easy to see the status and hard to overcharge.

Another benefit comes when you’re finished and at the range. You won’t have any worries about low charges moving around in the case, say resting up front away from the primer. On occasion, weird stuff happens in that scenario.

Seasoning

As you see in the photos, I used traditional brass cases for the “normal” responsible adult loads. You know, a small pistol primer, 3.3 grains of Trail Boss and a 128-grain lead bullet.

For the nickel (more festive) cases, I did all that but added a dash of Pumpkin Spice (yes, really) and just because I love that cinnamon smell, a sprinkle of that too.

Why? On an old Gun Cranks episode, this topic came up in discussion, and I was double-dog dared to try this and see if I could, in fact, make the range smell like the Fall holidays when I fired these reloads.

I’ll never back down from a direct challenge like that, even a dumb one.

Surplus Guns

Yeah, I’m the handgun guy, but that doesn’t mean I don’t also like playing with rifles. Especially vintage surplus bolt-actions like Arisakas, Springfield 1903s and the like.

Do your homework on this before working up fun loads for your favorite surplus rifle, but I made some nifty .30-06 loads using 9.0 grains of Trail Boss. Out of a 1903, it gave me just over 1,100 fps and boy, is it fun to shoot.

Sure, the full power stuff is fun too, but if you get tired of steel buttplate abuse or want to introduce friends, new shooters, or responsible kids to the joys of shooting vintage battle rifles, this is a great way to do it.

Pumpkin Speed

So, kind of on a last-minute whim, I decided to chronograph my regular manly, but still low-recoil .38 Special loads AND the ones scented-up with Pumpkin Spice. And I’m glad I did, because I found something surprising and unexpected. While I initially did this as kind of a joke and to see if it was possible to actually smell up the range with reload additives, I didn’t even consider, at first, what impact Pumpkin Spice might have on performance.

When I started thinking about it, I wondered if the reduced case volume (because I added more stuff besides the same 3.3 grains of Trail Boss in there) would result in higher pressure and perhaps higher velocity. To be clear, I didn’t worry about overpressure because these are really weak loads.

What I found was that pumpkins are slow. Or maybe they’re some kind of naturally odiferous flame retardant.

The “regular” loads averaged 700.3 fps for a five-shot string when fired from the S&W 586 L-Comp.

As for the exact same load, but with a dash of Pumpkin Spice added? Just 575.0 fps. Pumpkin Spice cost me 125 fps in velocity just for that pleasant range smell. No wonder those fall drinks at Starbucks are so expensive.

There’s no such thing as a free lunch.

Conclusions

Trail Boss is awesome.

It’s also flexible and useful for a lot more than wimpy wheelgun loads.

You can, as proven by this “real science,” make your range smell like those fall candles they sell at the Lovely Scents Emporium.

Pumpkin Spice is not only lame in beverages, it makes lousy reloads if you care about firing bullets faster than you can throw them.

For more info: Hodgdon.com