Ramshot True Blue vs Accurate No. 5 vs HS-6 comparison test results

[Mark in GA]

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Mark in GA

 

[Mark in GA]

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Mark in GA

 

[Mark in GA]

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Mark in GA

 

[Nevada Ed]

One of my manuals showed 5.8 HS6 as a max with the 147 bullet at a OAL of 1.13"

Surprised that .2 grs more would kick out that much more pressure........
even though an estimate.

Nice test..... not far off from my figures, they are in the ball park.

 

[bwxmas]

I think HS6 is a lot closer to CFE, or autocomp.
True Blue looks nothing like HS6, but the other 2 do, and they land next to each other on the burn chart.
I have not tried them side by side, but I bet they are closer.
That is also why I think HS6 is going away. They have a replacement with CFE, autocomp.
Just my opinion.

 

[Mark in GA]

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Mark in GA

 

[m657]

appreciate the work involved OP and would like to more easily view your tables;

somehow I'm getting rather a jumble and loss of tabular presentation.

I lack the computer skills to remedy from this end, and wonder whether others see 'normal' table or what?

I've got some Ramshot Silhouette anticipate for 40/10 and 9 laods. Impression is higher velocity from this powder?

 

[Mark in GA]

Just did some clean up work to try and help the data show up better. Check it and let me know is you can see it better now.

Mark in GA

 

[Mark in GA]

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Mark in GA

 

[Mark in GA]

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Mark in GA

 

[Mark in GA]

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Mark in GA

 

[Badquaker]

True blue looks pretty consistent in the larger calibers. Does it produce much of a flame/blast signature? I can't find blue dot, so true blue may be a good replacement.

 

[Mark in GA]

Even though Ramshot doesn't say that it is flash surpressed, it seemed fairly low flash to me. I would definitely expect it to be less than Blue Dot yields in that dept.

I've quite impressed with it over all.

Mark in GA

 

[Nemo288]

Fantastic work!
To the OP: when you are editing your posts with the tables you can use extra _ or ... to even up the columns.
I found that the forum software eliminates extra spaces so you can't just line things up that way.
As an example see my range results with CSB-1 at:
http://smith-wessonforum.com/reloading/416335-csb-1-44-magnum.html#post138371687
and following posts in that thread.

Again, thanks for all your hard work.
I know how much labor is involved with this and appreciate it very much.
Studying this stuff is a major part of my end of the hobby/sport.

 

[Mark in GA]

I'm gradually going through my posts here and cleaning up the alignment on this data so that it is more readable.

Mark in GA

 

[Nemo288]

Lookin' good!

 

[m657]

Just did some clean up work to try and help the data show up better. Check it and let me know is you can see it better now.

Mark in GA

thanks very much....I'll be pouring over this for DAYS!!!

 

[Nemo288]

At least in the 44's, which I am most familiar with, the True Blue is consistently producing lower ES and SD than the HS-6.
Looks to be much easier to ignite.
What kind of case fill % were you getting with the 44 special higher loads?
True Blue seems to have similar performance to Power Pistol in the 44 Special and Unique in the 44 magnum.
Not bad!

 

[Mark in GA]

True Blue is a fairly high density powder but so is HS-6. I would say case fill is similar to HS-6. The consistency of true blue through the powder measure is much better. And the spreads tend to be much better for True Blue even with standard primers used vs mag primers with HS-6. I am very impressed with True Blue. Burns clean delivers good velocity measures super accurately, and shoots accurately.

Mark in GA

 

[Mark in GA]

I have now added results from my initial Accurate No. 5 tests in 9mm and 40 S&W to the posts above. More No. 5 results will follow in the coming weeks.

Mark in GA

 

[Mark in GA]

Accurate No. 5 results have now been added to the above sections for 38 Special, 357 Magnum, 44 Special, and 44 Magnum.

Mark in GA

 

[BuckeyeS&W]

Thanks Mark . I just started to use No. 5 in 357 Mag with 158gr. LSWC's and CCI 500 primers shot from a 4.25" S&W Model 66-8. I don't own a chronograph so your data really is a big help . I see you loaded as high as 9.5 grs. which is .5grs. over what the Western-Accurate loading guide recommends ,interesting results. I have a post here where it was pointed out to me that I should try magnum primers to clean up load(don't think it's needed).As you commented midrange loads are the way to go for consistent performance. I loaded some with Federal small pistol mag primers but have not shot them yet. After seeing how No.5 performs in 44 Mag I'm going to give it a go . Thanks again for sharing this . I think this thread should be included in the "sticky section"

 

[Mark in GA]

Buckeye, the difference in the 357 Mag data as published currently by Western is they now list the Win SPM primer with all 357 loads. That particular primer is the hottest small pistol primer on the market. Since I was using standard CCI 500 primers, I felt confident in easing up slightly higher with my powder charge. I did not experience any issues at this level with these particular components, but please work up carefully yourself.

Mark in GA

 

[Mark in GA]

Just added No. 5 test results to 45 Auto section above.

Mark in GA

 

[EazyT]

Wow! Thank you so much for all your work on this! I came across a great deal on a bunch of True Blue and your work up is exactly what I was looking for. I have data in my manuels of course but I wanted more info on it compared to HS6 in several of the calibers you you selected in particular and that's exactly what got from your post.

Again, thank you!

 

[Collo Rosso]

I've been using HS-6 for a while now and have really liked it for mid to hot loads in many calibers. Haven't seen it for some time now and down to my last pound. Picked up 8 lbs. of CFE-P and it looks like I'm not going to miss the HS-6 much.
The Western powers I've tried (Zip & #9) worked really well but availability has been every blue moon. Hodgdon seems to always available around here.