Grafs had Herco on sale and I bought 3lbs. I have meant for over 40yrs to try some maximum loads of Herco with 160gr in .38spl. In the 70s I loaded a lot of .38spl mostly with Unique but some of the manuals and magazines were praising max loads of Herco in the area of 6gr with 160gr. Speer #11 and Hornady#II both listed these loads but I never got around to trying them. Yesterday I loaded a short ladder of loads 20 each from 5.4 to 6.0gr in .2gr steps. Today I tried these out on my 1/2 size steel combat target. I wasn't trying for groups just for shoooting impressions. All loads were full power in a LCRX and even 6.0 wasn't painful. I believe the 5.4 will make +P and I'm sure 6.0 probably is the max I will ever use.
I would not hesitate to use these loads for SD, HD or carry. This Herco has no mention of new cleaner or any such and I would say it is pretty dirty. I put a medium crimp on these and I will try a heavier one in the future. Bullet lube and residue made a gooey mess on the case mouths and I need to work on that. I'll try to post more later. Herco sure isn't as clean as the VV powders I have been testing lately but it isn't as expensive either.........