10 Grs. Unique. The Universal Cast Boolit Rifle Load?

[30calflash]

There was a short story in the American Rifleman on Unique as a universal powder written by Ed Harris several years ago. Handgun, some shotgun and rifle loads were all listed. Cast and jacketed with charge weight and approximate velocities were listed also.

The jacketed loads listed used light to medium weight bullets to keep the velocity up.

I'll see if I can find the date of the RM that had the info.

Found it. November, 1980, American Rifleman. It was also in the NRA Cast Bullet supplement that came out a few years after the Cast Bullet book from the NRA.

[spotsboss]

10gr Unique pushing a Ly457191 from the .45-70 makes a good gopher load. The report is so quiet you can hear the hammer "clunk". You gotta pay attention tho' and only shoot when the gopher's looking away..........if he's looking at you he'll see that big bullet coming and he'll duck.

[gamma50]

I tried 5.5 grs. in a 1917 with Lees CTL312-160-2R and that was fun at 25 yards,
sounds like a low fps .38 load, and I wondered if it would plug the barrel, 8# would last
for ever, I use 12 grs. for hotter load, a .30 cal. 22LR load?

[jason f]

Anybody try unique in the 300 blackout yet for heavy sub loads

[HMC710]

For my Lee 200gr cast load I started with 5gr of Unique and 8gr of Lil Gun. I just got the new Lee 220gr "Blackout" boolit but haven't had a chance to cast any yet.

[seanhagerty]

I have pressure tested 10-12gr of Unique in my 260 rem with my cruise missles w/gc's. They all shot fine. This would work great with a surpressor......

[jason f]

I have an h&r single shot 300 blackout. I am casting with the noe 311-247 mold. I have been using 9.5 grains lilgun but I would like to find a load using unique powder since I have an abundance of it and most places sell it.

[HMC710]

I've also got a 247gr 30 cal bore rider from NOE, nice mold. I was using AA #9 with a charge of 5.6 to 6 gr depending on seating depth. A charge of 5gr of Unique should get you in the ball park and use your chronograph from there.

[jaysouth]

I've had good results loading handgun cartridges with HS-6, which has roughly the same burning rate as Unique. Has anyone experimented with this powder for reduced cast loads? In my experience HS-6 meters better than Unique and burns cleaner.

Thanks

[saintdel]

I've generally relied on 16g of 2400 as my "universal" load in the medium case 30's. Just seems to work. Not for 7.62x39. It's a bit heavy too for 30-30. Unique can work too with lower charges, e.g. 10g, but I find 2400 more consistent and cleaner burning. I just acquired some Red Dot which I used with very good results long ago, going to try Harris' 13g "universal" load in my 303, 06 etc.

[TXGunNut]

OK, talked me into it. I have a 94 in 32WS and I'm looking for a hunting load but thinking a plinking load would be fun. After loading a few RX7 try loads for this rifle and a thutty thutty today I loaded five more try loads with Universal powder, from 8-10 grs in .5 gr intervals. Wasn't going to but I found a few lbs of Universal that I'd forgotten about. I doubt I'll ever hunt with this rifle as it's equipped with receiver peep sights and a globe front sight but it's a sweet old rifle and a plinker load will be fun. Cool thing about Unique/Universal loads w/ CB's is we're shooting centerfire rifles as cheaply as centerfires.
OTOH I can't see why a 175gr boolit @ 1500 fps or so can't take care of business with a S TX whitetail.

[TXGunNut]

My 32WS seemed to like 8.5 of Universal under the RD 323-170(180). Printed about 9" lower than the RX7 load I was trying @ 50 yds. Very enjoyable, glad I found a few extra pounds of this stuff on my shelf.

[donald duck]

My favorite cast load in my 7MM TCU is 5.3 grains of Unique behind a 120 grain cast GC bullet.
The 120 grain is from two old Lyman Ideal moulds. Shoot them in two T/C barrels as well as my Savage Axis rebarreled to 7mm TCU. The Shilen barrel is very accurate, light weight, and just plain fun to shoot.

[John L]

I have a lot of Badman 135gr 0.309 dia LFN bullets at 15 BHN.
So far I haven't found a good load for my Marlin 336 30-30 nor the Savage 1899 300 Savage. Anybody had an luck with this bullet in these rifles?
Would appreciate any info at all.

John

[YunGun]

Tried a new load recently that showed some promise:
131gr GC CB w/LLA over 10gr Unique + WLRM - recoil is about like a .22, so would make a fun plinker round for young/recoil-sensitive shooters.

[DeanWinchester]

A good friend bought a 450 marlin recently. I ain't shooting that thing with my bum shoulder! I can't find data for it but was just curious if the good ole 10.0g of Unique would work with a cast boolit in this thing? I'd be up for shooting that!

I reload for him and I need to come up with a plinker load so he can get out and enjoy the rifle without being abused.

[John L]

Has anyone had any luck in a 30-30 with the 135 grain FP, BHN 15, .0.309 diameter bullet from Badman Bullets? I got a lot of leading in the 8 to 10 grains of Unique range and the 15 to 20 grains of A5744 range with 3 inch or better groups at 50 yards. Trail Boss worked but couldn't get groups to settle down. Down around 7 grains of Unique groups went under 3 inches. Bullseye didn't work out too well either. Got a lot of smoke with the 5744 in the 18 to 20 grain range. Groove diameter on both Marlin 336 30-30s is 0.308 inch. help

[NLS1]

Well I had to try the 10 gr unique load. I had some NOE 165 gc boolits I cast a while ago, and had not loaded up. In fact I had not hand loaded for my 30-30 at all yet. 1949 Marlin 336 I picked up a year or two ago!

Anywho, buddy calls Wednesday, says hey you wanna go shoot tomorrow? Um, of course. Spent that night loading 30-30 with 10gr Unique, 165 NOE gas check-drops at 173 with 50/50, gc, and lube. Lubed with my beeswax/fluid-film home brew lube, sized .311.

What a hoot! I am not a real great iron sight rifle shooter, and didn't expect much on the first go round. Had hanging 8" round plates at 25, 50, 75, 100 yards. Whaddya know, I can hit a 8" plate, standing, with iron sights with the old 30-30 at 100 every time! I didn't shoot for groups, that was not the goal this time. Only had 45 rounds, but I could shoot hundreds of rounds of that load in a day, absolutely mellow recoil, and totally sufficient accuracy for deer. Zero leading, clean bore, and the only issue I had was that some of them were snug and I really had to squeeze the lever to get it to close. Might have to change something, but that is another thread.

I could hold dead on at 25-100 and it would hit every time. Lousy trigger, operator, slightly out of whack sights and all. Good enough for me, heck I can hardly see the target at 100 past the brass bead, yet if I held still enough it would smack that plate every time. Looks like I could hit the broad side of a barn from inside after all. Wish I could use a rifle where I hunt deer, would love to bloody that old Marlin.

Dan

[TCLouis]

10.5 grains of a Milsurp powder I have (No, not Russian Unique) #105 (yes there are two with this designation and far FAR apart in relative speed)) that I got from Jeff mimics Unique to a T and placed behind RCBS 325 grain or Ranch Dog 350 grainer in the 45 -70 moseys along at 1100 fps or so and stacks them right in there.

[RonLyke]

Probably too much for a 32-20 in a '73 Winchester, I would think. Anybody experiment with this caliber?