Has anyone used HS-6 powder?

[bayhawk2]

According to my books HS-6 is slower burning than Unique
,but faster than H-110 or Winchester 296.I bought a pound of it
and loaded for my .45 Colt thinking it might help my leading
problem in that caliber.It did help,a lot,and is cleaner
than Unique.Problem is I have some remnants of unburned
powder in my cases when I punch them out of my cylinder.
Not much,but some.What's the cause of that?

[oldgunfan]

I have used HS-6 for years, its great for higher power loads not quite magnum but up there. some powders work better than others at a lower psi range than others. that's why people use something like titegroup, bullseye for target loads. you might need to measure your bore, forceing cone and cylinders. IF your cylinders are a little out of time, not saying they are or anything but I have about 5 smith & wesson 357's all of them have different measurements. I have one that within about 12 shots it would be all leaded up it's a mod 27-2 and the forceing cone measures 357.5 the bullets were 358 to 358.5 not going to work, it gets JHP from now on. In your manual stay to the high side almost max and try that the powder remnants will go away but the leading may get worse. sorry

[bayhawk2]

oldgunfan-Makes sense.My Uberti .45 Colt leads more than my Ruger Blackhawk.
It's not like they just lead up bad.Just that I'm trying to keep the
lead down to nothing if I can.A slower burning powder helps,as I've also found this
out in the forums here.HS-6 is listed in my Lyman book,so I thought I'd try it.
I like it.Barrels and cylinders were cleaner.Just had the unburned powder.
I loaded about half way up the chart.I'll try the max loads and see what happens.
I don't mind a little leading.I think that may be impossible to eliminate it
completely.If I can get max loads with little leading, cleaner powder burns,and
half way decent groups,well.I think that's what I'm after.Thanks again.bayhawk

[BillM]

HS-6 shares a characteristic with it's now discontinued sibling HS-7. It
is "dirty" in light loads. The fuller the case and the harder you push it the
cleaner it will burn. Get up toward the top of the published data and you
will probably see the unburned powder disappear. 45 Colt is a large case,
you might be off the charts before it completely cleans up.

[woolleyworm]

Originally Posted by BillM

HS-6 shares a characteristic with it's now discontinued sibling HS-7. It
is "dirty" in light loads. The fuller the case and the harder you push it the
cleaner it will burn. Get up toward the top of the published data and you
will probably see the unburned powder disappear. 45 Colt is a large case,
you might be off the charts before it completely cleans up.

I've found that even in my 32HR loads, it's still dirty and leaves a few unburned flakes. It's a good accurate cowboy load, but ever since trailboss came along, I've yet to use it again.

[JLA]

HS-6 is the same thing as winchesers old W540. It is a pretty dirty powder