unique in 44 mag. rifle
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Skip Sackett
US Veteran
It will not make full use of the length of the barrel is one reason. It will not get you the highest velocities for another.
I have worked with 44Mag carbines, a M77/44 Ruger bolt gun, 3 or 4 Marlin 1894 lever guns with varying length barrels as well as an Encore Pro Hunter and while I did try Unique and it makes a nice plinking load, I wanted to use all of the inches of my barrel to make the bullet go faster. I was getting upwards of 1800fps from most of them with a 240gr XTP and that is nothing to sneeze at.
Unique will work, 11gr or so under a nice lead bullet, and you will be able to afford to shoot it all day long. True 44Mag performance? No......
If it could have been done that way, when it was being designed, Elmer Keith would have done it that way. Instead, he went with a slower powder............Just sayin'
I have worked with 44Mag carbines, a M77/44 Ruger bolt gun, 3 or 4 Marlin 1894 lever guns with varying length barrels as well as an Encore Pro Hunter and while I did try Unique and it makes a nice plinking load, I wanted to use all of the inches of my barrel to make the bullet go faster. I was getting upwards of 1800fps from most of them with a 240gr XTP and that is nothing to sneeze at.
Unique will work, 11gr or so under a nice lead bullet, and you will be able to afford to shoot it all day long. True 44Mag performance? No......
If it could have been done that way, when it was being designed, Elmer Keith would have done it that way. Instead, he went with a slower powder............Just sayin'
silentflyer
Member
Just picked up a 1894 Marlin, did a bit of plinking with it, 240 grains over 23 grains of 2400 and 23 grains of 296 seem to work better..
Have shot thousands of rounds of 8.0 grains Unique with 240-250 grain lead swc bullets in sixguns, great casual load. But for rifles, it's like the other posters said, you're just not going to get top-drawer performance out of Unique. Burn rate is too fast for that, and a carbine-length barrel can definitely take advantage of all a slow-burning powder like 2400, H-110, N-110, or 4227 can provide.
Rudi Z
Member
I use 10 grains of Unique and get acceptable plinking ammo with 240 LSWCs. If you want more perfomance use 19 grains of 2400 or 19.5 grains of H-110.
I never loaded for a 44 rifle ..................
but the speer book shows a 180gr JSP at 1552fps with a maximum load of Unique powder.
Speer shows a 250gr cast at only 1073 fps.
If you want to try jacket bullets.
but the speer book shows a 180gr JSP at 1552fps with a maximum load of Unique powder.
Speer shows a 250gr cast at only 1073 fps.
If you want to try jacket bullets.
I load a 180gr RNFP Missouri Bullet #7 over 11 gr of Unique. Out of my Winchester 1892 (20" barrel) I get ~1600fps. Easy to shoot and I get 1.5 - 2" groups at 50 yards. At 100 yards I'm happy to keep all my shots on a 6" plate.
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