unburnt unigue

[sv44]

i noticed a few unburned flakes of unique in my 44 special cartridges today and wonder if you guys have any suggestions.
i am loading 5.2 grains unique under a 215gr swaged and powder coated full wadcutter soft lead boo lit sized to 0.430 that sits about 1/16" out of the case. i suspect that i might need a tighter crimp since the powder coated projectile may be leaving the cartridge a little ahead of complete ignition???
any thoughts?

[Winger Ed.]

A little bit more crimp, that would be my first guess.

Then, maybe size to .431.
I'm not a powder coat guy, but check around here and see if other folk's have
found that powder coating after sizing would tighten it up.

And finally if it is still a issue, go to a different powder.

[Bent Ramrod]

You can try a tighter crimp, or maybe use a Lee Factory Crimp die next time. But Unique, though a great powder, is dirty burning at the best of times. I haven’t noticed any quantum leap in cleanliness with the alleged “new, cleaner-burning” Unique over the old stuff, either.

Unburned flakes in chambers may impede the insertion of new cartridges, or (more likely) merely leave a round “footprint” on a fired one, but IME I don’t see that the unburned flakes in the bore harm the shooting qualities of the load.

[brewer12345]

The proof of the pudding is in the eating. If the load is accurate and all of this causes no other problems, Iw ould not change anything.

[Larry Gibson]

That lite charge of Unique under the lite bullet isn't burning efficiently.....obviously. A heavier crimp probably won't accomplish a lot. For such a lite load I suggest a change of powder to Bullseye.

[JSnover]

Unique appears to burn cleaner for me at higher pressures, I'd start with Ed's advice about a tighter crimp or a fatter boolit. Seating them a little deeper might also help, though I've never tried it in a .44 and it sounds like you're loading them fairly short already.

[ShooterAZ]

6.3 gr Unique is the suggested starting load for a 210 gr boolit in the Lyman #4 manual, but it's not a wadcutter. You may consider switching to Bullseye as Larry recommended. Like others, I have discovered that Unique does better in the mid-range to upper end of the spectrum as far as cleanliness and efficiency goes. Light Loads with Unique = Flaming Dirt.

[Walks]

Yep, not enough pressure, to get a clean burn you have generate more pressure by burning more powder.

That's why there are minimum charge weights for each bullet weight.

And Unique was reformulated 25yrs ago. It burns a lot cleaner these days. Even with minimum charges.

[Dusty Bannister]

Full wad cutters, seated to have 1/16" out of the case. No printed data to keep it safe. You need to make sure that the space inside the case is not going to be too confined if you play with increased powder charges. I think was pointed out, but many may have missed it.

[mdi]

Unique is one of those powders often called "dirty" because at light loads, low pressure it, like many others, doesn't burn "clean". Reread Mr. Gibson's post...

[ShooterAZ]

Full wad cutters, seated to have 1/16" out of the case. No printed data to keep it safe. You need to make sure that the space inside the case is not going to be too confined if you play with increased powder charges. I think was pointed out, but many may have missed it.

You are absolutely correct Dusty, I did miss that and have edited my post to reflect it. Good catch.

[sv44]

im a little confused, i do appreciate all the thoughts on this but, if i add more powder (keeping in mind all the considerations above) i don't quite understand how this allows it to burn more efficiently - i do get the idea of using a 'cleaner' powder.
would it be any help, in my particular circumstance, to use a magnum primer vs the standard one i am currently using.
i will try bullseye and maybe redot to see how that goes.
again, thank you all for taking the time to weight in and advise

[centershot]

im a little confused, i do appreciate all the thoughts on this but, if i add more powder (keeping in mind all the considerations above) i don't quite understand how this allows it to burn more efficiently - i do get the idea of using a 'cleaner' powder.
would it be any help, in my particular circumstance, to use a magnum primer vs the standard one i am currently using.
i will try bullseye and maybe redot to see how that goes.
again, thank you all for taking the time to weight in and advise

Each powder has a specific pressure range in which it will burn efficiently. The minimum and maximum listed charges for a given weight bullet in any loading manual will keep you within that range. In your example, increasing the powder charge will increase chamber pressure to allow the powder to produce the pressure level that it operates most efficiently in. A lot of factors come into play here; charge weight, bullet weight, bullet diameter, crimp, bearing surface, etc. A cast boolit 1-2 thou over bore diameter has less resistance (friction, if you will) than a jacketed bullet. All of this has to be considered.

[gwpercle]

I'm looking at three different reloading manuals , all three state that with the 215 gr. SWC boolit the starting loads (minimum) should be 6.0 grains of Unique .

I can tell you from years of trying ....Unique does not like to be light loaded , it needs a certain amount of pressure to burn efficiently and unburned flakes are a sign of not enough pressure .
Life will be easier and you will be happier with a faster powdre.
I tried for years to light load it...it can be done but the unburned flakes are a result of doing it .
Bullseye , 700X , Red Dot , HP38 , AA #2 , Titegroup all will work for lighter loads or ...
bump up the Unique load to 6.0 grains
Gary

[sv44]

thanks all

[rintinglen]

My observation is that Unique doesn't burn efficiently until you get upwards of 17,000 PSI. I think your load is too light for best combustion, and could stand to go up to 5.6 -5,8 grains. I have an NOE 432-230 WC and I have used 5.4 grains of Unique with that for a relatively mild, accurate load. But these days, I use 4.3 Red Dot with that boolit. I will say I have found My two Ruger 44 Specials to shoot really well with that 230 grain wadcutter.

[sv44]

red dot certainly seems to have something to offer. to be honest, i use red dot with a 45 wadcutter and have not issues at all. i think I will be using up the rest of the unique i have on hand and then switch over to the red dot.
appreciate everyone's input and helpful suggestions

[gwpercle]

red dot certainly seems to have something to offer. to be honest, i use red dot with a 45 wadcutter and have not issues at all. i think I will be using up the rest of the unique i have on hand and then switch over to the red dot.
appreciate everyone's input and helpful suggestions

Keep the Unique on hand for mid range loads and buy some Red Dot for lighter loads .
I tried for decades to make Unique do it all , I only wanted to keep 1 powder , when I realized Unique and target wadcutter loads would never work out properly I broke down and bought some Bullseye...wonderful target loads..I should have done that years ago . Powder shortage hit...no Bullseye but that led me to Red Dot , then 700X , HP38 , Titegroup , Accurate #2... any of these are good for target .
All these years I had been fooling with Unique in target loads ... big waste of time .. Bullseye / Red Dot ... worked like a black magic Voo Doo charm !
I never knew how clean burning and accurate they were !
If you want target loads...get the right powder , it just makes reloading life so much easier . Red Dot or Bullseye would be great .
For data look for Cowboy Loads , the 44 special is popular for that sport .
Gary