Unique and the 44mag

[Green Frog]

Over 45 years ago my first real experiences with the 44 Magnum involved a 4" four screw Model 29 that an older friend, an experienced bullet caster and reloader, had been shooting with Keith bullets and his 8.5 gr Unique Target load since he got it almost brand new (an interesting story). He had an equivalent 44 Spl load and a full snort Keith recommended load using 2400 and was apparently fully satisfied with all three. I sure wish that old man was still here. I could learn so much from him!

Froggie

 

[scattershot]

I load 7.0 Unique with that bullet, for a nice easy shooting load. As I recall, it goes about900fps.

 

[243winxb]

I thought I would be loading medium magnums with my charges and barrel length, surprise surprise. My intent was not to set any velocity records with these, given the data range I had in front of me. If I want to do that I have about 8lbs of H110 and some mag primers.

Guess Ill see what happens tomorrow morning.
I know the redhawk is a tank but still, things can happen.

Range report on firing?

 

[Green Frog]

Correction: My amphibian brain finally caught up with my frog mouth and corrected a faulty memory circuit. When my old friend George was teaching me the joys of 44 magnum loading he cast the Ideal copy of Keith's bullet. For his casual loads, he dropped back to 7.5 gr of Unique in Magnum cases and 6.5 gr in Specials, at least to my current best recollection. That would make a lot more sense now that I think of it. These were nice, mild loads that were easy for a fairly young inexperienced enthusiast-to-be to control, even with the 4" barrel.

Froggie

 

[cowboy4evr]

My experience with Unique has always been when I got it up to adequate pressure , it burned quite clean . Just like any other powder . I have always found EK's load of 8.5 grs Unique with a 245 gr swc was real pleasant and accurate . From what I understand , that was his " everday carry " load . Regards Paul

 

[Ruger 13]

10 grains of Unique with Elmer's bullet is a tack driving load in all of my 44 magnum revolvers!

 

[jeeps]

A hard cast 240 swc with 11 grains of Unique killed every deer in the woods I shot. A hole to let the air in and a hole to let the blood out and you can eat right down to the bullet hole. With a good blood trail.

 

[BillBro]

Firing out of a 5.5" Redhawk the netted 1280fps and an ES of 7 and SD of 4! Accuracy at 25yds off a bag was about 3.75", Im no handgunner of the year.
The 12gr load gave 1290fps and much higher ES and SD, 45 and 18 respectively but the accuracy seemed to be slightly better, about 3/8" by my measurements, still not great though.
So, I didnt blow up but do think I can find better uses for the Unique. Currently loading up some 429421's with 6.5gr and 7.5gr just to satisfy my curiosity and then the rest will probably go in Special cases, unless I really like the lighter mag loads. After working with TrueBlue for the past few months I am still being impressed with it so I may settle on it, TrueBlue, as my 44 caliber powder.

 

[Luke Duke]

People call it " Flaming Dirt" that's just uninformed jabber. You should clean up your gun after you shoot it anyway. Point being I shoot 8.0 grains Unique with a Magnum Primer ( because I have 3 thousand of them) and a 250 gr Keith bullet out of my 4" S&W 629-6 and it will stack 3 cylinders full into 1 ragged hole (if I do my part )off a bench at 25 yards. Grant it, who ever built this gun at S&W did an awesome job and it just shoots great. My cases fall out clean and my gun is no more "dirty" than any other powder I've used.
If you got them use magnum primers and start on the low-end. I find the new Unique burns much cleaner with a hot primer.

 

[ArchAngelCD]

Since the reformulation years back Unique has been cleaner.

You have to admit Unique in the lower pressure range was very dirty like some other powders but does clean up nicely in the upper limits of it's range. BUT, back in the day there wasn't much else available to reloaders so....

 

[cowboy4evr]

A powder line that I'm not happy to see leave our shores is " Nobel Sport / Vectan " . Powdervalley told me they were no longer a supplier and I have noticed it no longer is available with other suppliers as well . Vectan #9 was a favorite along with #6.5 . 9 was about like Unique and 6.5 was in the range of Accurate #9 / Alliant 2400 . Using their load data I got some awesome performance --- high end velocity and very accurate . Regards Paul

 

[gwpercle]

I like Unique because it is so flexible ... 675-725 fps mid-range
up to 1280-1290 fps higher velocity ... that covers a wide range in 44 Special/44 Magnum .
The most important thing I like is availability of data ... plenty of data ... my oldest reloading book is from 1936 and loads for Unique are given .
Honestly ... if I were limited to one powder ... it would be good old "Flaming Dirt" ... Unique !
With it I can load some cast bullet Rifle , Shotgun Shells , Revolver and Pistol ammo from 32 ACP to 44 Magnum .
May not be the best but it is the one that will get the job done and it's been around 100 years and doesn't look like it will be taken off the market .
Gary

 

[ArchAngelCD]

I'm told Universal is just as versatile as Unique but I don't know that first hand. It very well may be but doesn't have the advantage of well over a 100 years of load data to look back upon.

 

[BillBro]

A powder line that I'm not happy to see leave our shores is " Nobel Sport / Vectan " . Powdervalley told me they were no longer a supplier and I have noticed it no longer is available with other suppliers as well . Vectan #9 was a favorite along with #6.5 . 9 was about like Unique and 6.5 was in the range of Accurate #9 / Alliant 2400 . Using their load data I got some awesome performance --- high end velocity and very accurate . Regards Paul

Agreed cowboy. I had the foresight to stock up on the Vectan when PV had it and I liken it to Vhitavuori. The 6.5 load data mimics V105 very, very closely and so does its performance. The Vectan burns cleanly also, just like VV. I bought a bunch of the 6.5 and the 7.5, just because of the price and weight. Maybe one day when I have a few less favorite new powders Ill mess with them both more.

 

[BillBro]

People call it " Flaming Dirt" that's just uninformed jabber. You should clean up your gun after you shoot it anyway. Point being I shoot 8.0 grains Unique with a Magnum Primer ( because I have 3 thousand of them) and a 250 gr Keith bullet out of my 4" S&W 629-6 and it will stack 3 cylinders full into 1 ragged hole (if I do my part )off a bench at 25 yards. Grant it, who ever built this gun at S&W did an awesome job and it just shoots great. My cases fall out clean and my gun is no more "dirty" than any other powder I've used.
If you got them use magnum primers and start on the low-end. I find the new Unique burns much cleaner with a hot primer.

Like you LukeDuke, I too have an abundance of magnum primers so thats some timely insight that Ill certainly bear in mind. Ive actually begun to use them more and more lately with a number of different powders, working my loads around for the mag primers, like you, because I have so many and only so many pounds of H110.

 

[Mike SC Hunter]

In addition to using Unque in 44 spl & 45LC. I like and use Unique in all my 12 ga & 20 ga loads.

 

[Marksman]

For more than 40yrs. now my go to load in .44 Magnum has been 7.5gr. Unique with a 200gr. RNFP cast bullet, I step it up to 9.0gr. when I want something with a little more power. Both loads are easy on the gun and the shooter.

 

[Ruger 13]

I've shot thousands of 44 magnum rounds with 10.0 grains of Unique and Elmer's bullet over the years………excellent accuracy! BTW……this was Elmer's mid-range load.

 

[viceunit]

I've shot thousands of 44 magnum rounds with 10.0 grains of Unique and Elmer's bullet over the years………excellent accuracy! BTW……this was Elmer's mid-range load.

I have used this recipe exclusively and have taken several deer with this load. I have never recovered a bullet. In the woods I hunt on my in-law's property, most shots are under 75 yards and this load has worked quite well. A little easier on the ears and recoil is mild.

 

[Dfish1247]

9.5gr with an extreme 240gr plated swc, my 629 and srh love it. Golf ball at 50-75yds every time. Recoil is not bad by any means. I've never had any luck with full power loads using unique though, groups turn to patterns.

Unique is a great powder for when you're tired of being beat up by 2400 and h110.