UNIQUE-Am I missing something?

[Snapping Twig]

231 is my light to middle range powder.

Good old flammable dirt is my mid range powder. Excels in the 45 Colt, light loads in the 45-70, light magnum in the 44 or heavy 44 specials, 38 special., etc.

It's a do-all, be-all.

One caveat, it needs pressure to burn efficiently, so I don't use it for light things, I have 231 for that.

296 & 2400 are my magnum choices with 296 getting the bulk of use.

 

[rwsmith]

If you want less than medium loads.....

Unique, like other medium burners, does best well above midrange. The claims of Unique being "dirty" come mostly from guys trying to make light target loads. Just keep the pressure up, Unique burns as clean asmost anything in it's burn rate.

People look at Bullseye and Titegroup types as strictly target powders when in reality they can be pumped up to pretty high velocity, WITH CARE as you don't want to overload a fast powder. Looking the Alliant Data for Bullseye, it can push a 125 gr jhp over 1000 fps. Unique can get the same bullet to 1082 fps. So there is no need to make light Unique loads when a Bullseye load can do it cleaner.

 

[992B]

Most of my reloading is for revolvers and Unique and 2400 will do 100% of the reloading for me!! Gary

 

[STORMINORMAN]

Never tried Unique, yet... Versatility when mixed with economy is a mighty fine attribute, IMHO.

231/HP38 and, at least for me, both 700-X & 800-X have proven to be both for most pistol and revolver applications.

I do currently "scoop & trickle" each individually weighed load, so metering is no problem. I find it easy to move right along while charging and seating, can't see how a double charge would occur, have the correct powder amount actually verified by both weight & approximate volume which I consider to be an additional safety factor.

As long as the scales are accurate and correctly set it is pretty hard to envision a problem. Now, from experience I can relate that 1.8gr of 700-x will go BANG! but won't cycle the action on a 380acp, and while 2.8gr works just fine 3.8gr is not good! Thankfully I'm only familiar with the former! Shot a couple dozen one at a time, but NO BOOMS!

That's why I check my scale settings twice and cross-reference with LEE's dipper chart, just to be sure.

Cheers!

 

[fredj338]

People look at Bullseye and Titegroup types as strictly target powders when in reality they can be pumped up to pretty high velocity, WITH CARE as you don't want to overload a fast powder. Looking the Alliant Data for Bullseye, it can push a 125 gr jhp over 1000 fps. Unique can get the same bullet to 1082 fps. So there is no need to make light Unique loads when a Bullseye load can do it cleaner.

Correct, why unique gets a bad rap. Use the correct powder for your application. Dont use a powder to do something it wasnt designed for, you get a better result.

 

[Triggernosis]

Correct, why unique gets a bad rap. Use the correct powder for your application. Dont use a powder to do something it wasnt designed for, you get a better result.

How do you determine what a specific powder was designed for? For example, I use W231 and Trail Boss for .38spl, but I don't know why - just because that's what I was told to use. I like Trail Boss for it's case-filling capacity, but I don't really know what it is truly designed to do.

 

[RIDE-RED 350r]

I am not a 50 year veteran reloader, but have been reloading for about 5 years now. From what I have learned, the powders that use the most or all of case capacity tend to be the more "ideal" powders for a given cartridge. 44mag for example, look at loading data using H110 or AA#9 as opposed to faster powders like Unique or AA#7. The powders that have the most velocity potential are the ones that fill the case.

All if that is relative though, lots of guys seem to like to make easy shooting target/plinking loads and those are usually made using powders with burn rates on the fast side for the cartridge.

 

[Bosquebass]

The classic trilogy of handgun propellant is Bullseye, Unique, and 2400. With those three you can load anything from the old .38 S&W to full on .44 or .357 magnum including the popular 9mm and .45 auto. In fact, Unique is the old "tried and true" for .45 acp, at least for me.
I just loaded some low end .44 mag target rounds today with Unique. It works as well as anything for this but like I said at the start of this thread it's tougher to meter than some others.

 

[noylj]

The thing is that if you do an external ballistic calculation, you'll see that for the +/- 0.2gn spread in charge weight that Unique is accused of won't affect the group size out to 25 yards and, most likely for the accuracy of the gun, out to 50 yards.
People are far too worried about charge weight and not enough into looking at history and seeing that it didn't matter back then and doesn't matter now. Personally, my Lee and Hornady measures throw Unique at +/- 0.1gn and my Dillon throws at about +/- 0.15gn and my ChargeMaster doesn't care.
As far as the OP is concerned, if you haven't needed it up to now, you probably don't need it and, if you do, you might be just as well off with BE-86 or Power Pistol and not worry about the horror of metering.

 

[rwsmith]

Back to my old adage....

If Unique is 'dirty', it's just plain SOOT and cleans up easily.

I shoot 2400 and the front of my cylinder has a cake of hardened goo burned onto it.

 

[Mistered]

10.0 Gr of Unique ahead of a 100 gr .30 cal Speer or Hornady half jacket bullet makes a fine reduced 30-30 round - and still gives around 1700 +/- FPS according to my friend's cronograph.

 

[joeintexas]

At that price for primers I would definitely go that route. Primers here are $40/1000 everywhere.

 

[Jupiter01]

I find the discussion interesting because I like Unique gun powder but I have found it nearly impossible to find for sale.

Fortunately, I bought sufficient Unique to last me for the foreseeable future, but I have seen it a few times locally. HP 38, AA#5, or Power Pistol seems to be about the same burn rate, and should do well.

I was at one of my favorite gun emporiums, and they had powder coming out their ears...but Unique, 2400, IMR and H4350 were missing, too. The clerk allowed as how they were very popular powders! It is getting better, though!

 

[tabascoman79]

Go shoot.

On the subject of Unique, given your cartridges and apparent loading style, I could make a case for using it in 9mm or 40. But while it's a good powder--I like it a lot--no powder is magic. Although I am an admitted powder addict.

I did purchase an 8# keg of Unique, which I'm about to tear into now that my 1# bottle is almost empty. That keg is named "Hillary"--I bought it Just In Case, because I can load all my cartridges with it acceptably.

I think I'm going to try Bullseye in 9mm next. Something faster than the Unique and Universal I've been using, just to see if it shrinks my "out there" groups any.

I use unique in 9 ,40&45. I also use n350 in 9 with the 147s. Seems to be a good powder for it. I have silhouette also

 

[Ole Joe Clark]

I've been reloading since the mid 70's, (that's last century, folks), using Unique and various other powders. Unique was used in shotguns, 38's, .357's 44's way back then with good results. It still is.

Have a blessed day,

Leon

 

[SMSgt]

So with 75 lbs. powder on hand, what would you do?

Stop buying...

 

[Jupiter01]

I started using Unique 40 years ago for shotshell loads. When I drifted into loading for handguns, the Unique I already had was immediately useful.

Rifle loads ???

Yup! Unique and 2400 do marvelously well in bottleneck rifle loads.