Br-5?

[jaysouth]

I just got two jugs of BR-5 today from GIBRASS.

Anyone have any experience with it in pistol or cast rifle bullets? It's supposed to be ball Unique.

[ScotMc]

It is. works great in .38spcl, 357, 44mag .45auto. Have not tried with rifle boolits yet

[Hick]

Just got some BR-5 myself this past summer. Good results with low velocity cast loads in my M1 Garand and Enfield. Still testing.

[Castaway]

I did a work up around December 2020 and posted. Ran a Quick Load on it and 11 grains gives a predicted 16,102 psi. I went to 11.2 grains. I wouldn’t hesitate to shoot it in my Uberti cloned SAA’s since they’re considered safe with 45 ACP +P. Indications are it’s very close to VV 3N38. Somewhere in the archives in this forum is the 92 data

Previously I posted BR 5 data with my Win 92 in 45 Colt. This time I used a 7 1/2” barreled Black Hawk in 45 Colt. Jeff Bartlett gives initial guidance saying use Unique data. To get a comparison, I base-lined with 7.9 grains of Unique and a 7.9 grain load of BR 5, both using Lee’s 255 gr RNFP bullet. As a side note, 7.9 grains of Unique drops from a 1.02 cc Lee disk, 7.9 grains of BR 5 has a volume of 0.67 cc, the closest Lee disk is 0.66cc. If you were to use the Lee 1.02 disk, you’ll end up dropping 12.1 grains of BR 5. I didn’t go that far, but I feel it would be entirely safe in either the 92 or Black Hawk. Having no way of checking pressure, I considered ease of extraction, knowing that isn’t reliable with straight wall cases, and primer condition. No load resulted in a flattened primer, although I have a feeling I was approaching, or at +P pressures, but nowhere near Ruger/Thompson level high-end loads with 11.2 grains of BR 5. Five rounds were fired with each load. Most accurate load was with 11.2 grains of BR 5 which was no surprise given the low standard deviation.
Load Lee disk Velocity SD
7.9 gr Unique 1.02 cc 887 14.93
7.9 gr BR 5 None (6.7 cc) 674 126.3
9.7 gr BR 5 0.82 cc 907 33.95
10.5 gr BR 5 0.88 cc 997 18.94
11.2 gr BR 5 0.95 cc 1095 12.4