Unique loaders, question

[adagna]

I have always fired my Unique loaded 357 mag rounds at out door ranges until tonight. I went to an indoor range tonight and fired about a box and a half of shells, but what struck me was how much smoke it produced. Is this a flaw/bad powder or does Unique normally produce seemingly excessive amounts of smoke. I guess I never noticed having always fired them outdoors if it was like this in previous loads.

If this is a normal characteristic of Unique, is there a better powder that would be more suitable for indoor shooting?

 

[Steve C]

If you are using lead bullets its the bullet lube that's responsible for most of the smoke. Jacketed bullet may still have some smoke with Unique, more if you have an the old Unique and not the "cleaner" version that's been sold for the last half dozen years or so. In magnums with higher pressure there's little smoke with jacketed or copper clad bullets.

 

[Ron H.]

Sir, a certain amount of smoke seems to be just the nature of Unique. That said, some loads produce more smoke than others. Unique tends to burn cleaner in stiff loads than light ones; often you have to approach the top of the data before it'll burn clean.

You might try increasing the powder charge a bit, within reason and the usual reloading caveats. In my .44s and .45s, as little as a half-grain change makes a big difference in the amount of smoke produced.

If you want really light loads, a different powder might be in order.

Hope this helps, and Semper Fi.

Ron H.

 

[adagna]

They were lead SWC, and the powder is actually 11 years old when I finally placed the date when I bought it.

Is this going to be a problem with the lube on any lead rounds I shoot?

 

[walnutred]

Some lubes smoke more than others. The traditional alox/beeswax loads seem the worst to me. I notice relatively little smoke from White Label BAC, which is one of the reasons I switched.

 

[TSQUARED]

With lead bullets it is virtually impossible to eliminate smoke. The old white moly lubed Star lead bullets were the least smoky in my limited experience.
When it comes to powders, Unique is not the cleanest burning powder unless your load develop fairly high pressure. In mild 357 loads with lead bullets I use American Select which is a cleaner burning powder. I only use Unique for reloading 16 and 28 ga. shotshells.

 

[David LaPell]

Unique is a dirtier burning powder by its nature. I don't know how much fun it would be firing it indoors personally.

 

[Treeman]

I rather like a whiff of powder smoke. With Unique and cast bullets it comes with the territory.

 

[H Richard]

When using cast bullets you will get "smoke" regardless of the powder used. Some more some less. I have seen a few indoor ranges that require jacketed bullets, the smoke being one of the reasons.

 

[adagna]

What would you all recommend for a better indoor powder? I have been looking for someone who has some 2400 or #9 in stock, will either of these be better?

 

[Treeman]

Adagna, Much depends upon what you want from the load. If you just want to target practice then 2400 of AA9 are NOT goot choices-those powders are bets suited fro full power lloads in the .357 mag and are going to kick hard , be loud and light up the indoor range with their fireballs. If you want a powder to make up reduced power loads for fun shooting(like your 6 grains of Unique) my own choice is actually Unique or PB-pb is cleaner and less smokey but a bit harder to find and it costs more. An excellent choice that I don't happen to stock personally but which is well proven and easily found is 231.

 

[44forever]

Being slower powders, 2400 and AA#9, are at their best in loads at or near full power. In light loads they tend to smoke also, especially 2400. For light loads to be shot in doors, I would recommend Bullseye or a fast ball powder.

 

[oldRoger]

I usually use AA 5 for target loads in .357 cases, many use #2 , The four AAs 2 (quick), 5 (mid), 7 (slow), & 9 (slower yet) cover the bases for most handgun uses. IMO use 2400 only for full magnum loads

 

[Joni_Lynn]

I think it's the nature of Unique to make a bit of smoke.
If you are looking for a more smoke free powder there's a LOT of good choices available. That being said unless you want to try a bunch, talk to other people that reload and shoot indoors to see what they like.
I like WW231/HP38 but they still produce some smoke.
AA5 or AA7 may work well for you. The burn rate chart used to list AA5 as being close to Unique.

 

[magnum12pm]

I use Titegroup, American Select, and Clays with copper plated bullets. I have not been on an indoor range that allows lead bullets other than 22LR. These three powders mentioned above have never given me cause to notice smoke. They say that lead bullets vaporize a portion of the lead that clogs the filtering system in the range, adds lead to the environment in the room. I'm not a scientist but thats what they told me at the range.

 

[adagna]

Does anyone have a quick link to a chart that shows what powders are fast and slow burning?

So what I am taking away from this, and correct me if I am wrong, that in the indoor setting for target loads that are not full strength and smoke less I am going to be better off using a fast burning powder, like AA2, or Bulls eye.

Also I inquired about the hand loads before I ever brought them into the range, and when I asked if I could shoot my own hand loaded ammo the answer was simply yes, without any qualifiers such as only full jacketed etc... I was assuming they wouldn't allow the lead rounds but they didn't seem to care.

 

[M29since14]

...You might try increasing the powder charge a bit, within reason and the usual reloading caveats. In my .44s and .45s, as little as a half-grain change makes a big difference in the amount of smoke produced.

And other things, too!

These days, most of my shooting is in the evening on an indoor range. Years ago, when I shot mostly outdoors, I always used Elmer Keith's suggestion for a 44 target load - 8.5 grain of Unique. It was an acceptable load, but I was never really happy with it. I got more leading that I liked, and extreme spreads for 6 rounds could be considerable - sometimes around 70 FPS or a bit more. In spite of this, the load shot reasonably well in most of my guns.

For some reason, I can't recall why, a couple years ago I switched to 9.0 grains. Just as Ron describes, the load burned cleaner, reports were more consistent, less leading, and accuracy improved.

Subsequent chrono tests showed the velocity increase to be more substantial than 0.5 grains would seem to indicate, which was curious, but consistency improved markedly.

The 9.0 grain load is just a bit hotter than I would like for target shooting, but since it works so well, and since I still have a lot of Unique, I have been using it.

If I were to run out and change powders, I would probably go to 231/HP38, just because it works so well in the other cartridges I use. If you are looking for something cleaner, Universal might be a good one. My experience with it presently is limited to .41 Magnum, but I would think it would be good in the .357 and 44, too.

 

[Steve C]

Does anyone have a quick link to a chart that shows what powders are fast and slow burning?

Burn Rate

 

[adagna]

Burn Rate

Thats great, thanks a million!