Reduced Unique loads out of 1895 Marlin

[MikeG70]

TC,

With all the information these good people have given me, I feel very comfortable going with 10/15 Gr of Unique in my 45-70 loads with the correct weight bullet. But,yes, you are very right, if one one is concerned about the safety of a load, they should try another.

Mike

[Tom-ADC]

Mike if you haven't invested in a couple of loading manuals say Lyman, Speer etc I highly recommend you pick a couple up.

[MikeG70]

Tom,

Yes, I do have loading manuals from Speer, Hornady, Sierra, Hodgdon, Alliant and Lyman Cast Bullet 3rd Edition but none of them talked about the reduced Unique loads I was looking for. Now with all the help y'all gave me, I have Richard Lee's reloading manual and the 4th Edition Lyman on the way.

If you know of others that are helpful in this area, please let me know.

Mike
USMC 1961 - 1965 and am proud to be a Marine.

[MikeG70]

Tom,

Darn it, I forgot one. The Lyman Reloading Manual 49th edition is on its way to me also.

Good Night all,

Mike

[Lloyd Smale]

i think for the most part the powder manufactures are conserned that in loading light charges someone might substitute a jackted bullet for a cast and stick one in the barrel.

[Heavy lead]

I like Alliant powders, but frankly their testing and data sucks. Hodgdon has much better data available on there website, as far as that goes Accurate does too. I use a ton of Unique and always will, also Reloader 22. I would use more of their powders if they provided more data, especially for shotgun loads.

[PatMarlin]

Tom,

Yes, I do have loading manuals from Speer, Hornady, Sierra, Hodgdon, Alliant and Lyman Cast Bullet 3rd Edition but none of them talked about the reduced Unique loads I was looking for. Now with all the help y'all gave me, I have Richard Lee's reloading manual and the 4th Edition Lyman on the way.

If you know of others that are helpful in this area, please let me know.

Mike
USMC 1961 - 1965 and am proud to be a Marine.

What LEE does is explain and how different types of powders work with cast boolits, with many examples using 30 caliber for instance, but you get a real understanding and insight that not many other reloading manuals go into.

For instance:

Suggestions from Richard Lee in his book Modern Reloading...

Loading a reduced "too Little" powder charge load with very slow powder and large rifle cases can be a dangerous pressure spike situation, so he offers this info... Quote-

"A very conservative guide line would be to limit charge reduction to 20% for the slowest powder on the Burning Rate Chart (he's refering to the burning rate chart listed in his book which is an extensive list of common powders). You may increase the reduction by 1% for each preceeding 30 powders on the chart. Limit total reduction to 50% for the rest except for greatly reduced squib loads. Load these with a very fast but extremely light load."

[MikeG70]

Good Morning All,

Glad to receive more imput on this thread and if I were in the powder production business I would also try cover all the bases. There are those out there that do push beyond the limits and that is when trouble starts.

Good shooting,

Mike

[MikeG70]

HeyY'all,

I have a question for you to see if we are thinking the same. Using Unique with 300 & 405 lrnfp bullets and you had to pick one charge to use in both, what would it be? This load would be only to plink with.

Mike

[crabo]

I would be trying to change the powder charge to make both boolits hit at the same point of aim at a certain distance, say 50 yards.

[mpmarty]

I recently ran a "test" of Unique and 350gr Ranch Dog boolits.
All were tumble lubed in 50/50 LLA JPW.

12GR UNIQUE 1114 fps, 1117 fps
13GR UNIQUE 1158 fps, 1134 fps 1042 ft lbs energy
14GR UNIQUE 1202 fps, 1230 fps 1176 ft lbs energy

All out of a 22" barrel 1895 Marlin circa 1974
No leading whatsoever.

I never use filler with Unique nor with any other powder I load in 45/70

[PatMarlin]

I would be trying to change the powder charge to make both boolits hit at the same point of aim at a certain distance, say 50 yards.

Just read an old article from John Barsness on that very thing. Loading to the sites of the rifle. He said Towsend Whelen was big on that. One rifle, 2 loads for small and large game. Both hit point of aim.,

[crabo]

I did this with my pb plinker and GC hunting loads in my 44 mag.

[MikeG70]

I guess the thing to do is load the 405 first and then load the 300 down to that point of impact.

Mike

[MikeG70]

My Lyman Cast Bullet Handbook 4th Edition arrived today in the mail. I was surprised to see that Unique is no longer mentioned in any of their 45-70 loading data.

Are they trying to tell us something or what do you think?

Mike

[peerlesscowboy]

My Lyman Cast Bullet Handbook 4th Edition arrived today in the mail. I was surprised to see that Unique is no longer mentioned in any of their 45-70 loading data.

Are they trying to tell us something or what do you think?

Mike

I think the lawyers won

[WARD O]

A good friend has one of the modern manufactured Bulldog gatling guns - it is full size and is chambered for the 45-70. The manufacturer recommends Unique and last year I loaded over 3,000 rounds of a 400 gr RN over 13 grains of Unique. We've been shooting it in the gatling and in a couple of different Shiloh sharps rifles with very good results - it is very accurate and clean burning. I picked a boolit that seats rather deep as it reduces the powder space and keeps the powder together more to promote consistent ignition.

Ward

[peerlesscowboy]

I have stacked before me the last four editions of the "Lyman Reloading Handbook", that's the general reloading manual including both cast & jacketed loads. Somewhere between the 47th (published 1992) and the 48th (published 2002) ALL those reduced rifle loads using Unique and other shotgun/pistol type powders were eliminated. So.........do ya' think that after all these years this 130 year old company has decided it had been publishing dangerous loads? Or did the company's lawyer advise them that some moron might double charge a .45-70 case with Unique, blow up his gun and hurt himself and then sue the **** out of the company?

John C. Saubak

[PatMarlin]

I vote lawyer moron.

[MikeG70]

Thanks for your imput and I agree the lawyers have prevailed on this one. What a pitty future, shooters will not have documented data from Lyman on the use of Unique in this application. Well then, I guess it is up to those who know better to get the word out.

Has any one heard when Marlin products are going to hit the market again? I have a Classic 1895 on order with my source here and was wondering how long it will be or if I will ever see it.

Hope y"all had a good day,

Mike