What powder meters better than Unique

[hylander]

.45ACP, 200SWC
I worked up a good load with Unique, throwing each load by hand.
Now that the load is good, I fill the RCBS despenser and start throwing loads.
However Unique does not Meter well.
I am getting fluxuations as much as .2 Low to .2 high, that is a veriance of .4 grains, which is way to much for the .45 ACP
So my question; what is a good Powder that meters well ?
Weighing each load gets old real quick, especially when you need to load 200 rounds at a time. I am using single stage press, can't afford a Dillon :bawling:

[GrizzLeeBear]

Ah, yes good old Unique. If you are trying to meter it to within .1 grains, forget it. The variance you are seeing is probably pretty average. Unless you are loading right to the max. with it, try the loads and see how they shoot. I usually load Unique a bit below max. so that the high side of the fluctuation stays below max. Even though it does not meter real well, it is usually very tolerant of charge variance as far as accuracy.

[405]

Sorry not a lot of help.... I meter quite a few powders but rely on the drop-trickle-weigh method whenever I need precise loads. And, like you, have found some powders or powder/measure combinations just don't do well. It may have something to do with the type of measure vs the type of powder. I'm sure someone will jump in who has tried most types of measures with most types of powders.

Unique has always given me fits in metering- maybe one of the worst. It binds up in the meter while the long grain extruded powders just chop! Again may be the type of measure I have. Pistol type ball powders have some fans who'll recommend them- I just don't use many ball powders. On the other hand the fluffy flake Trailboss is a dream through my measure. Very repeatable and precise. Trailboss has some application in the 45 ACP and all the short fat, high expansion ratio cartridges. It's a fairly fast powder so is not used for the highest velocity-top end loads.

[dromia]

Vihta Vuori N330, a smidgeon slower but meters very well.

[KYCaster]

Accurate #5, Win Super Lite, Win Super Field, Hodgdon Universal, SR7625, Alliant Power Pistol.

Any of these will work fine in 45 ACP and will meter much better than Unique.

Jerry

[NoDakJak]

I have replaced Unique with PB in most of my loads. It measures as well as anything that I have ever used and burns slick as a whistle. I haven't tried it in anything larger than a 30.30 and probably won't as I am very leery about using pistol powder in rifle cartridges. The only problem that I have with it is that it works so well I just can't buy it fast enough. Neil

[shotman]

If you are loading the 45 try Tite Group 5gr and will meter well and uniform it also is position insensitive rick

[imashooter2]

Winchester Super Target, Bullseye, Winchester 231, Hodgdon Clays...

[REDTAIL]

HERCO is also a good & easy powder to throw

[Heavy lead]

what type measure are you using? bushing or adjustable rotor?

[hylander]

what type measure are you using? bushing or adjustable rotor?

RCBS Uniflow

[Heavy lead]

that's a great measure. So that's not a problem. I use unique, quite frankley never measured for consistancy a whole lot. I weigh all powder charges (except H380 in 22-250 in rifles, I only check pistol charges 5 out of a hundred. They (with unique are usually plus or minus 1.5, consistancy is there so I don't worry about it. I know Universal Clays meters better for instance, but for me it doesn't work as well. What I would recommend is you load 50 with thrown charges (as long as they're not max loads) and chronograph every one. See exactly what your extreme spread and standard deviation is with the thrown charges. This actually can be higher with weighed charges than with thrown charges with some powders.

[carpetman]

This question tells me you are not using a Belding & Mull powder measure. Never found one type powder it doesn't meter. But it aint broke in yet--only had it 41 years or so.

[wiljen]

Titegroup, clays, w231 and AA#5 or #7 all are good powders in the ACP.

[Bill*]

+1 for Bullseye

[yondering]

Another vote here for just shooting those Unique loads, and don't worry about the charge variation. Unique is pretty forgiving for that, and always gives me good accuracy. I just weigh the first few charges, and just load the rest.
Sometimes we tend to get too picky with precise powder charges, when it really doesn't affect accuracy much with certain powders and loads. A good load should be able to tolerate variations in powder charge weights without affecting accuracy.

That said, I use Bullseye for most of my 200gr SWC loads in 45 ACP. 4.0 gr is a nice target load.
I use Universal for most of my 230gr RN loads, as I found it to give best accuracy in my gun.
For full power heavy loads I use Unique.

[carpetman]

Yondering--I cant agree with Unique being forgiving. A little goes a long ways. 158 grain cast bullet in .357 mag had a min of 4.0 grains and max of 8.0 grains in the Lyman manual----from 7.0 on you could feel a difference even in 1/10 grain increases.

[94Doug]

+1 WW231... wasn't there just something written up in a magazine that more or less showed that the small variance of powder using a powder measure VS weighing each load didn't make that big of a difference anyway?


Doug

[hylander]

Got some HP-38, Meters great
Now if I can work up an accurate load that isn't a Powder Puff.

[Echo]

To answer your question - practically everything! I hardly use Unique any more.

+1 for PB - I use it for nice little .38 loads. It burns cleanly - I like it.

And +1 for 231 and Bullseye. They work great in a .45...