I have always taken Bob Hager’s load advice with a grain of salt. He had a habit of using cas head expansion to determine pressure limits and many of his loads were, shall we say…hot…even by the standards of the day and SAAMI specs for a number of loads have backed off a bit since then, given the switch to piezo electric pressure sensing.

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That said I don’t think he was necessarily “wrong”, but I don’t think the the small increase in velocity was ever - and still isn’t- worth the extra recoil. In short, the juice just isn’t worth the squeeze.

Based on my own ballistic testing, the difference in velocity between a max load of a powder like Unique and a max load mod a powder like Win 296 is about 50 FPS in a short barrel revolver with a 125 gr bullet. However the recoil energy you get with more than twice the mass of powder, but only 50 FPS more velocity is 42% greater, the recoil impulse is 31% greater, and the recoil velocity is 33% greater.

Win 296
Charge Weight: 21.0 gr Muzzle Velocity: 1300.0 ft/s
Firearm Weight: 2.4 lb Bullet Weight: 125.0 gr
Recoil Velocity: 16.6 ft/s Recoil Energy: 9.6 ft•lbs
Recoil Impulse: 1.2 lb•s

Unique
Charge Weight: 9.0 gr Muzzle Velocity: 1250.0 ft/s
Firearm Weight: 2.4 lb Bullet Weight: 125.0 gr
Recoil Velocity: 12.6 ft/s Recoil Energy: 5.6 ft•lbs
Recoil Impulse: 0.9 lb•s

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Now….folks will claim the extra velocity is worth the extra recoil, and most of those same folks will claim they are not recoil sensitive.

However if we start shooting for speed and accuracy over a 100 round range session I guarantee they’ll be getting better hits and much faster follow up shots with the lower recoiling load. That makes far more difference than an extra 50 FPS of velocity.

Even with just a single cylinder fired at 7 yards double action at speed, shooters will get faster follow up shots and better shot placement with the lower recoiling load.

The irony is that the extra recoil of the slow burning load will convince most shooters that the slow burning powder load is a lot faster and a lot more powerful than the slow burning load, even if I load them to the same velocity in the same revolver.