Picked up some HS-5

[125JHP]

now what am I gonna do with it? I did find several loads listed in the older Speer & Hornady books. I read it is inverse temp sensitive and winter is coming here in Arizona so it might be a good time to work some loads up, but what would be the best candidate?
I bought it mainly for the cardboard can to add to my display shelf but it is full of powder.

 

[rwsmith]

Put the powder.....

Put the powder in a jug and send it to me. You keep the canister for you're collection.

 

[ArchAngelCD]

As with all the HS powders using a magnum primer will deliver much better results than with standard primers. It's a hard to ignite ball powder just like HS-7 was and HS-6 is right now.

HS-5 is a fairly fast powder on the lines of W231. It will work well in the .38 Special and .45 Auto without a doubt. I never used it in the 380 auto but I see no reason why it won't work well there too. I'm a huge fan of all the HS powders and wish they were all still available.

BTW:
HS-6 = W540
HS-7 = W571
HS-5 ?? rumored to be similar to AL-5 but that might be only a rumor because of the similarity of the numbers.

 

[perrazi]

what shape was the container? it has to be fairly old, it was disc. many years ago.

 

[125JHP]

I estimate mid-60's

My Speer #10 ranks it a little faster than Unique and the 2010 Hodgdon burn rate list puts it slightly faster than Unique, right in with WSL and 473AA. The Speer manuals recommended a magnum primer, but the Lyman & Hornady loads did not. But like HS-7 I was already prepared to break out the stash of magnum primers I seldom have a use for these days.

It looks and smells good so there isn't any reason to not use it. Past experiments with old powder show about 25~50fps velocity loss over fresh powder and that could just be the lot difference.

Since this is a seldom seen powder in my parts, it is good for experimentation, fun and loading up some range fodder. I will probably cast up a bunch to play with and then load up some put-back rounds for those guest shoots when you burn up a bunch of ammo with holiday visitors.