I've recently acquired a good amount of HS-6 powder and I'm looking for ways to put it to good use. I would love some real-world experiences the group may have with the following please:

38 Special: Shooting my 38's out of a snub-nose 2 1/4" barrel (357 Mag). My bullet of-choice is a 158gr SWC to be used for target practice, a lightweight sidearm to be carried on a belt during rifle hunts, and for social work. I wonder if that HS-6 is a little slow-burning for the shorter barrel?

45 Colt: Bullet of choice (for now) is a 255gr Keith style SWC . I'll probably continue to play with Unique on this one, but I'm curious what HS-6 might do. This is out of a Ruger Redhawk, but on a power scale of 1-10 ranging from the weakest load ever conceived as a 1, to a full-bore 44 Mag. class of load being a 10, I'd be looking for something in the 7 range. This is my sidearm when in Bigfoot country and when my gut tells me to carry something bigger.

Thanks!

I have not taken any game with a load using HS-6, but really like the loads that I have been using in 44spcl, 45 Colt, and 454 Cassul.

For your 45 try 13 grains of HS-6 and see if you don't get 1000+ fps and acceptable accuracy.

You also might want to check out johnlinebaughcustomsixguns.com

Byron

Maybe these will help.
45 Colt




357 mag


38 Special

Thanks!

I am not positive but if I remember correctly it and win 540 are the same. I would need to check my loading books to be sure.

If you want me to do that send me a PM.

Hodgdon HS-6 doesn't have a Winchester twin (different VoluMetric Density), but it is VERY close to the same burn rate as W-540.

HS-7 and W-571 are the same VMD according to Lee data and are adjacent on the burn rate scale, so probably interchangeable. I have not seen much info recently about HS-7, they may be taking it out of circulation.

I have not yet taken many trial loads of HS-6 to the range, so I'm not going to offer any advice. The Hodgdon Reloading site <http://www.hodgdonreloading.com/data/pistol> should give you the same good information generously supplied by Swifty. HS-6 is fine-grained and measures well.

Kinda true since they killed off 540 that there is no longer a twin. But unfortunately Hodgdons disagrees with you.

https://hodgdon.com/hs-6/

HS-6
HS-6 is a fine spherical propellant that has wide application in pistol and shotshell.

In pistol, 9mm, 38 Super, 40 S&W and 10mm Auto are some of the cartridges where HS-6 provides top performance.

In shotshell, HS-6 yields excellent heavy field loadings in 28-, 20-, 12- and 10-gauge.

HS-6 is truly an outstanding spherical propellant and identical to Winchester’s discontinued 540.

Works good in 45-70 with 300, 350 and 405’s. Around 13.5grs

Swifty, thanks for your correction, sorta.

The Hodgdon website does assert that W-540 and HS-6 are identical. They are virtually the same burn rate and have nearly the same GraviMetric Density (GMD). However, most of my use of the fast powders is for handguns, so I use powder measures rather than weighing each charge. Shotgun reloaders usually do the same according to my reloading friends. Although W-540 has been rated at the same burn rate as HS-6 they cannot be interchanged in any powder measure; they occupy different volumes per grain.

HS-7 GMD is shown in Lee's Reloading Manual, 2nd Ed., as 0.0680, same as W-571. That's why I said they are identical.
HS-6 " " " " " " " , " 0.07120. W-540 is shown as 0.06830.
According to Lee's data, W-540's GMD was bracketed by AA-2700 and AA-2520, W-571 by HS-7 and AA-2520, and HS-6 by H-1000 and RL-25; The Density/Volume ratio puts these pistol/shotgun powders in rifle territory, bracketed by slower powders.

Hodgdon's mention that these (HS-6 and W-540) are identical or interchangeable is probably based on their VERY similar burn rates. That claim maybe also falls into the poetic license category, since they are the company marketing Winchester (and IMR) powders now. I have not seen any mention of W-540 or W-571 powders in Hodgdon data recently.

Don't use the same setting on your powder measure for HS-6 as you used for W-540. They are "truly outstanding" but not interchangeable.

if the manufacturer claims "identical", I am sure there is no "poetic license" involved. I don't know how you would even consider that. The differences you describe are simply explained through different lot numbers of powder.

Every time you bake a cake using an "identical" recipe, do you get "identical" results?

This I will agree with. Identical powders or even the same powder depending on lot tested will give varying results and charge weights. I recall that Western/Accurate powders ballistic tech when LT32 first came out described their procedure in a BR Central thread.

http://benchrest.com/showthread.php?82133-New-western-powders-lt-32-test-results

“All of our powders are allowed to deviate +3% to -5% in pressure from the quality control lot except LT-32 which we cut the deviation percentages in half in order to have the best lot to lot consistency in the industry for this powder.”

Going by this deviation standard which I would assume is about industry wide, that would explain charge reduction of 10% when changing lots. So variation of identical powders depending on lot standard could result in a 8% variation in charge weight in the manuals.