What's the deal with Universal powder?

Universal in a C-H 502 and Lee PPM meters acceptably (+/- .01-.03 most often with about 75% same weight repeatable). I use Universal more than any other powder in my handgun loads, 9 calibers from 380 ACP up to 45 Colt. My JIC loads are 9mm w/124 gr JHP over Universal and 45 ACP 230 gr FMJ over Universal. I keep about 500 rounds each, Just In Case...
 
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What's the deal with Universal powder?

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I mean, really?
 
There is one nugget that I left out and it seems nobody has addressed…

A couple years ago, the Hodgdon Universal that is packaged and sold changed from Australian production to Canada.

I buy 8-pounders only… in any/every powder I use, except Power Pistol (arrgh!!!) and so I had a good stock of my Universal before this change.

I have never used the current Canadian Universal. Is it different? Could it be different? NO IDEA. But it is relevant to the conversation.

I've had plenty of experience with powders that meter lousy. Red Dot, Green Dot, neither runs great for me. Unique is awful. IMR-800X probably wins the title for worst I have ever tried when it comes to dropping charges from my Lyman 55.

Universal gives me no hassles.
 
Maybe your measure is just gummed up. I was fighting with a powder that usually flows well in my Uniflow. I took it all apart and scrubbed the drum and frame with bronze wool and alcohol, blew it all out, then lubed with dry graphite. It's working the way I remember it now.
 
It does fine in my Lee Perfect Powder measure. Back when Unique got scarce it was recommended to me by a friend who has been reloading for as long as I can remember. He said he was starting to like it better.
 
Sevens said:
There is one nugget that I left out and it seems nobody has addressed…

A couple years ago, the Hodgdon Universal that is packaged and sold changed from Australian production to Canada.

I buy 8-pounders only… in any/every powder I use, except Power Pistol (arrgh!!!) and so I had a good stock of my Universal before this change.

I have never used the current Canadian Universal. Is it different? Could it be different? NO IDEA. But it is relevant to the conversation.

I've had plenty of experience with powders that meter lousy. Red Dot, Green Dot, neither runs great for me. Unique is awful. IMR-800X probably wins the title for worst I have ever tried when it comes to dropping charges from my Lyman 55.

Universal gives me no hassles.
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I used Clays for many years. No problems at all in my shotshell loads metering in a MEC 9000 progressive.
10's of thousands of rounds.
This was the Australian mfg stuff.
Then they had the fire at the Australian plant that mfg'd the stuff.

I had enough 8#'ders of the powder to hold me thru till the 'new' Clays came available a couple yrs later.

I bought an 8# jug of the new Canadian mfg Clays.
I used it once to try and load some shells.

I had nothing but bridged powder in the drop tube problems & light drops.

After messing with the stuff a couple of times I finally dumped the bottle back into the jug of powder and to this day it's still sits un-used.
I managed to load approx 1 box of 25rds with it.

It seems awfully 'fluffy' compared to the Clays I was used to handling and loading for all those yrs.
It just won't work through the metering bar or a Lyman 55 either. Thought I would use it in pistol loads. Guess it'll be LEE scoop measures to get rid of the 8 pounds at 3 or 4 grains at a time.

I switched over to Alliant Clay Dot powder as my 12ga powder with no issues at all. Same powder bushing.

Maybe the Universal (Clays?) in question suffers from the same problem as the Clays powder I have.
 
Interesting information about newer batches of the "same" powder acting differently. I know this thread is about Universal, but my issue was with Bullseye. Bullseye never gave me trouble, it measured smoothly and was consistent from charge to charge. No complaints. Then I used up the last bit I had that was in the old cardboard cylinders. I opened one of the newer plastic bottles and immediately had a problem. It bound up my Redding powder measure. Something on the powder created a gummy-like drag on the measure. Even after emptying the measure, the gumminess remained. When I took it apart and cleaned it with isopropyl alcohol, the problem disappeared. The measure worked fine until I tried that bottle of Bullseye again and got the same trouble. I just quit using Bullseye and happily went with 231. I think the change in Bullseye was the switch to the so-called "cleaner" version. Cleaner in the gun, maybe, but not in the measure.
 
I use a mountain of Bullseye and though my first batch of it was indeed Hercules from the cardboard can, every pound after that first one has come from Alliant plastic, and never struggle with it. I still love Bullseye in .38 Special after all these years and it's still the only powder I feed my Model 52's.
 
Some of the Alliant powders have been reformulated to be 'clean', but don't think Bullseye is one of them. I use it in 99% of my loads, never had problems. It is sensitive to static, the 1st pound was reluctant to empty out of the powder measure and back into the bottle. No more static cling after that 1st bottle.

Universal is great for .45 FMJ loads, I am less thrilled with it for lead. Lots of smoke.
 
It's a Shotgun Powder. As a result in meters poorly in volumetric powder measures with a Standard Deviation of 0.17 grains. So that +/- 0.51 grain variation poses a problem with a 5 or 6 grain charge. However if you are throwing a 14 grain or more charge that really doesn't matter so much. If you insist on using this powder for handgun loads then USE A SCALE and trickle up each charge. If that's too much of a bother then offer your powder for sale at a local shotgun range, it will take you about 5 minutes to find someone looking for some Universal because it's a real Goto for 28 and 20 gauge loads.
 
My Redding 3BR with the small pistol micrometer does have a bit of trouble throwing charges of the Canadian made Universal powder. This powder looks like round flakes and have a reddish pink colour like clay bricks there is no black graphite coating on the granules and that may make the granules less slippery.
The first time I used this powder with my Redding 3BR I had forgot to remove the rust preventing oil in the micrometer chamber so I had to do a lot of trickle up adjustments.

With a clean and dry measurement chamber Universal works well.
I adjust the 3BR to throw light by .1 or .2 grains and trickle up to my desired charge weight. Surprisedly many throws weigh spot on, not requiring any trickle up adjustment.

I like loading Universal it works great in my 686 357 mag 6" barrel.
A 6.0 gr charge averaged 1146 fps (3 ten shot strings averaged) with a commercially cast 158 gr SWC bullet CCI 550 mag primer in Starline brass.
 
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Universal flows and measures just as good as any other powder even in very small volume pistol cases.
 
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