slickracer
Member
FYI, Powder Valley has BE-86 for a decent price.
Alternative to Alliant Unique?
- Thread starter lrrifleman
- Start date
Alliants website is showing a new Herco.
Very similar to Unique. Claims cleaner and can use the same reloading data as older Herco.
Alliant Powder - Home
Very similar to Unique. Claims cleaner and can use the same reloading data as older Herco.
Alliant Powder - Home
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Herco used to be quite popular for loading handgun cartridges but seems to have fallen out of favor in the last thirty years or so. I would guess many of today's handloaders have never tried Herco, but it remains a very useful powder. Lots of Herco data in older manuals.
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The Norseman
Member
Red Dot
I too like Alliant Red Dot. It is my go to
powder in my Revolvers. It is closest to
Unique on the Heat Index chart (not
the Burn Rate chart). Been using it for
about +15 years.
But I have learned not to favor or limit my
usage of powders to one. If I want to use
another powder, I get the books out, study a
lot, look for a reload 800fps - 950fps, and
use the grains of powder listed. I use mostly
Lead Bullets.
Other powders in order; Red Dot, Unique,
Bullseye, American Select, Vihtavuori N320,
Long Shot, Power Pistol (a lot of muzzle
flash), HP-38, Win 296, IMR4227 (5-6 grains
lying in barrel after each shot).
Unfortunately powders are getting harder to
find.
I too like Alliant Red Dot. It is my go to
powder in my Revolvers. It is closest to
Unique on the Heat Index chart (not
the Burn Rate chart). Been using it for
about +15 years.
But I have learned not to favor or limit my
usage of powders to one. If I want to use
another powder, I get the books out, study a
lot, look for a reload 800fps - 950fps, and
use the grains of powder listed. I use mostly
Lead Bullets.
Other powders in order; Red Dot, Unique,
Bullseye, American Select, Vihtavuori N320,
Long Shot, Power Pistol (a lot of muzzle
flash), HP-38, Win 296, IMR4227 (5-6 grains
lying in barrel after each shot).
Unfortunately powders are getting harder to
find.
Didn't one of the other powder manufacturers come out with some powders comparable to the red, blue, and green dot powders a couple of years ago?
Seems like they just named them Red, Blue, and Green - without the word "dot".
Seems like they just named them Red, Blue, and Green - without the word "dot".
Wow! That didn't last long, did it?
pistolpete10
Member
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Over the years I've had to switch powders due to availability a few times.
last time was an 8# jug of 231, wanted something else, don't remember what now. Before that I was using Clays for .45 and 12ga. Had to go back to Green Dot for shotgun(also works for pistol). Now use WST for .38 and .45 and I would use it for 9mm but Hodgdon refuses to give us loads for it.
Bottom line I could get by with Green Dot only for everything but Rifles if I had to.
last time was an 8# jug of 231, wanted something else, don't remember what now. Before that I was using Clays for .45 and 12ga. Had to go back to Green Dot for shotgun(also works for pistol). Now use WST for .38 and .45 and I would use it for 9mm but Hodgdon refuses to give us loads for it.
Bottom line I could get by with Green Dot only for everything but Rifles if I had to.
Beemer-mark
Member
Universal. Meters great. I used Unique for decades and gave up on the tedious weighting every load. Universal is right next to Unique on the burn table and meters extremely well. Negative is that even that it's been around for decades finding load information is tough.
Unique, Clays, Red Dot, American Select and e3 among a host of other powders seem to be made of the same stuff...unobtainium!
scooter123
Member
The finest powder I have found for 9mm loads, yes the 38 special is a 9mm load, is Vihtavouri 3N37. It meters wonderfully, produces excellent velocity, and it is NOT POSITION SENSITIVE. In addition it's very close to Unique in terms of charge weights. I will also note that if you look it up you will find 3N37 is useful for light 38 special loads up to lower power 357 Magnum loads so it has a wide range of potential loads. I use it for powder puff 357 Magnums in my 2 1/2 inch 19-3 specifically to conserve the forcing cone.
SLT223
Member
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CFE Pistol has been much more available than unique over the past decade. At least I think so from the looking I’ve done. It meters like water through my Dillon my measures. I don’t even bother looking for unique anymore. Unfortunately, I think the availability issue of popular powders is generally true across the Alliant brands.
I use Red Dot, too..
...but man, that powder is faster than Bullseye according to the charts. I'd consider it to be more in the category with that and Titegroup rather than a medium burning powder.
...but man, that powder is faster than Bullseye according to the charts. I'd consider it to be more in the category with that and Titegroup rather than a medium burning powder.
cowboy4evr
Member
I contacted Alliant and asked which one had the faster burn rate, Bullseye vs Red Dot . He said , " Bullseye " . Regards Paul
Model19man
Member
Still have something like 3.9 pounds of Unique left so it is not critical yet. Midway USA had BE 86 on sale so I picked up a couple pounds of that for whenever the Unique runs out. It will be a while.
Not true. The burn rates are substantially different. Bullseye is faster burning. A much smaller charge of Bullseye will approach velocities of Unique, but not with the same pressures. The possibility of overcharge is high.
BE86 and Universal seem to be the go-to replacement for Unique.
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I have no idea who would write such a thing as Bullseye is a very fast burning rate powder, Unique is in the medium burning rate area, the two are no where near alike other than being flake style powders.
