Hodgdon
Hodgdon Trail Boss
Built for low-velocity lead-bullet Cowboy Action loads, primarily in handguns with some rifle application.
Specifications
| Manufacturer | Hodgdon |
|---|---|
| Product family | Hodgdon |
| Status | Currently produced |
| Application | pistol, rifle |
| Grain form | extruded |
| Composition | single-base |
| Temperature stable | Yes — claimed by the manufacturer |
| Burn-rate position | 24 of 198 (fastest = 1) — what this means |
| Typical cartridges | 45 Colt, 38 Special, 45-70 Government, 38-40 Winchester |
Very bulky, low-density granules giving high loading density — the case fill is the safety feature Hodgdon emphasises, since it is difficult to double charge. Hodgdon also cites good flow through measures and stability across severe temperature swings. Sold in smaller canisters than most Hodgdon powders because of its low density.
Burn rate
Fast, between Alliant Green Dot and Winchester Super Handicap.
Chart agreement: consistent across the three charts that list it Ranked by: Hodgdon, Vihtavuori, Wolfe/LoadData.
Powders charted near it — neighbours on the chart are not substitutes, and adjacency tells you nothing about what charge either one takes:
- Accurate Solo 1000 (position 21)
- Alliant Green Dot (position 22)
- Winchester Super Target (WST) (position 23)
- Winchester Super Handicap (position 25)
- Shooters World Clean Shot (position 26)
- Hodgdon International (position 27)
What reloaders say about it
Unverified community anecdote. The following is a summary of what handloaders report in public forums. It is not manufacturer information, it has not been tested, it may be wrong, and it contains no load data by design. Treat it as colour, not guidance.
Trail Boss occupies a strange place in the community: discontinued, then reportedly back in limited production, and treated with open skepticism until people see stock listings. The affection for it is about its bulk — it fills large cases usefully for light cast-bullet and subsonic loads — and about easier cleanup than black powder.
- prized for very high bulk / case fill in large-capacity cartridges
- favored for light cast-bullet, cowboy-action and subsonic loads
- reputation for being easier to clean up after than black powder
- its own return to production was met with community disbelief until proven
Availability: Reported as trickling back into stock in 2025-2026 in small containers, at prices users describe as a rip-off, sometimes with shipping costs exceeding the product. Users in Australia (where it is made) report sporadic availability there too and advise not expecting prices to normalize.
Reported cautions:
- A cautionary thread exists where a user's expectation of case fill did not match reality — an illustration that even a bulk powder's fill behavior varies by cartridge and should be verified against current published data, not forum memory.
Consensus level: widely held. Drawn from thread 1, thread 2.
Sources
Other Hodgdon powders
Verify the charge, not just the recipe
Good data gets you a safe starting point. It does not tell you what actually went into the case on stroke 340 — a bridged measure, a double charge, a squib. That is what an RCM Laser Powder Check is for.