Does anyone have a favorite load for the 45 colt? I just got the dies, looking for bullet and powder advice. Has anyone used trail boss?

Thanks

Since you didn't specify in what way you are using the cartridge, I will share my favorite for plinking. I don't carry 45 Colt for self defense or I'd give a different answer.

200 gr SWC 6 grains of 700X, yields 850fps. Sorry, haven't used Trail Boss in 45Colt.

Reloading manual Speer #11 gives a minimum recommended of 5.9 grains and a max 6.9 grains. My results for avg velocity did not match with the book.

250 gr SWC - I've used 5 different powders, and for my plinking have noted no differences at all. Accuracy has been within my needs for all.
700x min 5.8-6.3max
Red Dot 6.2-6.7
Bullseye 6.6-7.1
231 7.1-7.6
Unique 7.5-8.5

Standard disclaimer to check from a printed source, and develop your own loads watching out for under or overpressures.

Thanks,
Mostly was looking for a fun target load. Later I will look into hotter ones. I should say I will be using it through a river. Ruger, damn spell check. I might try some aa5 since I have some, but will definitely give yours a try.

There is a single cartridge book with info from many sources.

Unique is nice but tends to be a bit dirty in my experience.

This is also my experience with Unique. A very versatile powder and I'm happy with the performance. I use 158gr lead round nose bullets over 5.0gr Unique in 38 Special. One of the RSO's at Evergreen jokingly mentioned there have been newer handgun loads invented since the advent of smokeless powder So Unique is both smoky and dirty. Plan on cleaning your gun and hands thoroughly after a shooting session. Still have about 6 lbs on hand. Once that runs out will likely transition to a faster burning, cleaner powder.

Thanks for the heads up. I have not used unique.

I run Unique, quite a bit. A tad bit dirty but works good.
I use 230gr hard cast in both pistol and rifle.
45 Colt is not a high pressure case. You can bump it up a bit more with nickel cases, but not worth the effort unless you plan on using it for hunting, then a box of hot Buffalo Bore works and you aren't going back and forth on loads. At least my opinion.
Don't recall how many grains of powder, but in my rifle I can toss 230gr round out much further than my eyes can see through the iron sights. There's a rock face 400 yds out where I go, it's about 10'X10' and can hit it every time with a good resounding whack.

I splurged and found some 454 Casull brass in sale. Will be cutting it down for 45LC. My Colt Anaconda and Rossi rifle can handle much higher pressures so I'm curious to see what the sturdy brass enables.

I run Starline brass at Ruger/TC loads without any issue. I'd sell those 454 Casull brass and buy new 45 Colt Starline brass. Brownells has them at $20/100 (even lower once youu applied their discount/free ship code).