44 Magnum and Unique Powder Question

[bluejay75]

Greetings gents,

When using unique what powder charge of Unique powder gives good accuracy from a pistol and a rifle?

Post your results and findings please.

JB

[Hickory]

Unique is a good low to medium load powder and can produce good accuracy.
It's not really meant for high speed loads.

My thoughts!

[ShooterAZ]

A LOT depends on your boolit weight. For me, boolits weighing between 200-250 grains 8.5 grains of Unique is usually an accurate moderate load. If you want to get a little more oomph, 10 grains does pretty well too. YMMV

[smithnframe]

I use 10 grains of Unique and Elmer's bullet in all of me revolvers.......I'd use it in my Ruger 77/44 but the bullet is too long for the detachable magazine!

[scattershot]

Good load for me is 12.0 grains with a 240 grain Hornady XTP bullet for 1200 fps. On the other hand, 9.0 grains with a 180 grain jhp gives me 1100 +/- in .44 special cases, and cloverleaf groups. Standard primers in both, and no pressure signs.

[rintinglen]

for the 429-421 and the RCBS clone, 8.5 - 10 grains has been the range I have used, but the 8.5 grain load was more accurate for me and was the load I used the most. In essence, this is a near clone of the "Skeeter" 44 Special load, only adapted to the 44 Mag. For the older S&W's, this is a useful load, giving adequate power for just about anything in the lower 48 without the severe recoil (and with a slightly more mild report) of the full on Mag loads. The 10 grain load is more noise and somewhat more velocity, but runs into high pressure before it gets you to full Mag velocity.

[Larry Gibson]

I've found 8.5 gr Unique under 240 - 255 gr cast bullets to be a very accurate and comfortable 1000 - 1050 fps mid-range load in the 44 Magnum. I prefer to use Bullseye or Red Dot with 200 gr cast bullets in the 44 magnum for velocities in the 800 - 1000 fps range.

[243winxb]

44 mag, WLP, Unique powder.

[onelight]

44 mag, WLP, Unique powder.

That is excellent when younger I could do that on occasion with a rest but not standing very nice.

[nawagner]

Just finished a load workup and 8.7gr of Unique behind a Hornady 240gr SWCHP (10 BHN) bullet seated at 1.615" COAL was the best load for my gun.

[Cosmic_Charlie]

My .308 likes 10 gr. with a 160 gr. boolit. Very accurate and just over 1000 fps.

[ddixie884]

With a 240 or 250gr cast, anything from 8 to 11gr of unique makes a good load. The lower mimics .44spl and the higher lacks only 100 to 200fps from being full Magnum loads. 8.5 to 9 is a favorite range for me.......

[onelight]

I am another 8.5 to 10 grains with a 429421 guy

[Win94ae]

44 mag, WLP, Unique powder.

Great shooting!

[Walks]

9.5grs for Me, under the Lyman#429421 cast of 50/50 - #2/COWW.

Too long to feed in a Browning B92, but very accurate when single loaded. One inch groups at 50yrds in that rifle from the bench, issue sights.
Used the #42798 over same powder charge. Very reliable feed and almost as accurate.

[Lloyd Smale]

ive allways found 9 to be a sweet spot for the 44s. For the 45 I go to 10.

[Rodfac]

If you're looking for medium velocity loads, say 950-1050 fps from a handgun bbl., then I'd recommend Lyman's 429125 GC, cast from ACWW + 1-2% tin, and sized 0.431" for Ruger and S&W handguns, as well as Marlin carbines. I anneal my GC's and find that sizing, works well in both. My handguns actually prefer 0.430" but a bit larger is just about as good. With the Marlin and its oversize bore (slugs 0.432"), I can get away with 0.431" and still get sub-2" gps. at 50 yds, scoped. And...best of all, that bullet feeds 100% through my Marlin 336 .44 Magnum Texan, (yep one of the early ones), and my son's 1894 Cowboy. At ~225 grains as cast, checked and lubed, it's a solid performer from revolver or carbine.

My load is the famous Skelton prescription (7.5 gr. of Unique in .44 Special brass, or 8.5 gr. in Magnum hulls) which works extremely well with 429215 GC as well as Keith type 240 gr. LSWC's. BTW, 429215, as you probably know is an old Thompson design, and the GC cures many leading issues...thread constriction, alloy not quite right, lube not up to snuf, etc....

YMMv, but if forced to make one bullet choice for Special or Magnum, it'd be that 429215 GC...plenty of smack for deer or steel, economical on WW's which are becoming ever more scarce, and a bit lighter in recoil than the ubiquitous 240-250 gr SWC's of Keith fame.

HTH's and by all means, check with a good manual then work up to these loads if interested, but they've proved safe in my guns, and literally thousands of others. Best of luck, Rod

[375supermag]

Hi...
I have shot thousands of rounds of .44Magnum reloads with 10gr of Unique under a commercial cast LSWC through five different .44Mag revolvers with excellent results.
That includes a S&W 29 with an 8-3/8" barrel, a Dan Wesson with a 5" barrel, two Virginian Dragoons with 7-1/2" barrels and a SBH.
These revolvers are shot weekly with that load.

[curiousgeorge]

My load has always been 8.5 grs with a 429421 250 gr Keith. As some have already mentioned, that boolit won't feed in my Marlin.

Am currently looking for some #43-230G slugs to try. If they are accurate, may become new rifle boolit.

[444ttd]

ruger sbh(4 5/8") in 44 mag/spl

255gr Keith with 7.5gr of unique - 44 spl
280gr wfn with 10.0gr of unique - 44 mag

[Jack Stanley]

Just for what it's worth to you , my carbine/revolver load is ten grains Unique under a Remington 240 grain soft point . If I remember right the velocity in the carbine is over twelve hundred feet per second . A four inch S&W revolver gives about nine fifty .... But I've been away from the Chrony a very long time .

Accuracy is very good and the carbine has brought home venison with no troubles at all .

Jack

[429421Cowboy]

Not much to add to this, but i have probably reloaded more .44 Magnum than any other round, and almost all of them (95%+) were a 240-250 gr boolit with 9.5gr of Unique. I started loading just because of having a .44, and used 9gr for awhile, then bumped it up to 9.5 to seal the cases better and clean things up. If it ain't broke, I'm not going to fix it. That load will absolutely sail right though any deer I've tried it on and has done the job on plenty of cows as well.
I picked it because it was easy to spot a double charged case, Unique can be loaded in about any rifle, pistol or shotgun round out there in some form or another, and with a 240-ish grain bullet there is a HUGE load range in published loads, down to very light for the Hornady swaged bullets up to quite a bit hotter than what i load it at. I figured at the time that gave me a pretty decent margin of error learning to load, and here i am a decade and some later still failing to find anything i like to load better.