Unique loads for the 500 S&W

[saz]

I am new to the 500 smith, (just found a 7.5"BFR)so I am starting slow. I have fired a few X frames with full house loads and they will get your attention quickly. I have been able to round up brass, lee 440gr mold and a set of dies. I cast a few the other night and lubed them up with RecLox (45/45/10). As a side note, this is the second Lee mold that casts perfect boolits right out of the mold- right as .501" with straight ww's. Anyways, I am wanting to try SR-4759 but there seems to be a shortage of it up here. Oh well, I have Trail Boss, Unique and Lil Gun that are suitable. No GC's yet, to Lil Gun is out.

The Trail boss is easy, start at 8.5 and 10.8 is max. I have 5 each at 9, 9.5 and 10. There isnt much unique data out there I have found except for the Lyman 4th edition bullet casting handbook lists 12grs starting and 17.5grs max. I have not worked with uniuqe that much, and 17.5 sounds pretty hot. But on the other hand, the 500 Smith is a pretty big case. I started loading at 12- hand weighing each to ensure no double charges- went at .5gr increases and stopped at 16. Anyone loaded that much unique before?

[HammerMTB]

I haven't done 16, but I did 15 over the 440, and the other day over a 320 REAL. The 320 REAL went 1290ish. That was in the right range to get my attention.
FWIW, I tried 10 of Unique as it is a good load for me in other (smaller) capacity cases. It seemed inconsistent. I tried a tuft of Dacron, but that didn't change things. I think it is just too big a case for the powder, and so doesn't develop the needed pressure to light it well. So 15 is going to be my "starting" place.
I think I'm going to go to a slower powder, and get the 320 going faster. At 1700 (in the percussion rifle) it packs a whallop. I can see the same in the BFR. Maybe I can find a sweet spot at 1450-1500.

[carlsonwayne]

I use 38 grains of 296 for my 300 to 350 grain jacketed bullets, and 8 grains of TB (if I remember correctly) for my Lee 440gr cast. One of my books lists something like 32 grains of 296 for the Lee 44 cast. 296 is a small ball powder and it takes a LOT to get 38 grains. If you find a good load for that Lee bullet, post it. I would like to find a good load other than what I use. I gas check all my cast bullets out of the 500 just because. There is a better reason, but I don't want to go into it again.

[Falo308]

2400 is the best out of my s&w, if you get a chance try the 700 grn boolits, they are a hoot,these things are massive as is recoil, but hay if I wanted a gun to kick like a 357, I would have bought a 357. They kill cabbage, pumpkins, watermelons and bowling balls dead