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Thread: Replacement for Unique?

  1. #21
    Powder Valley has good prices on CFE Pistol, especially the 8#. They are running specials now (free hazmat through today) and will be running more deals up to Christmas - https://www.powdervalleyinc.com/prod...on-cfe-pistol/

  2. #22
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    During the Great Shortage, I bought 8 lbs. of Universal Clays. I haven’t used it yet. Does anyone here have experience using it for .38 Special and 45 ACP?

  3. #23
    Member Sal Picante's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by revchuck38 View Post
    What I'm looking for is a powder that will work well in several calibers that is not Unique:
    Ah... "Antique", err, "Unique", aka "fish food flake"...

    LOL

    Someone mentioned Win231 (also Hogdon HP-38, they're the same) and that is a pretty good choice for the variety you're interested in. In the 44 there is some really nice data pushing a 240 pill at low-recoil 44 special velocities ~6.5. In my 44 Mag Snubbie (Alaskan) I had to boost it to 7gr but it is still really soft. It is a nicely metering, non-temp affected powder that burns reasonably clean. Try 3.5gr under a 147 coated in 9mm sometime for a super nice action pistol load.

    AA#5 is nice, but I don't think you'll be able to load as much variety with it. I love the way AA2 and AA5 meter: spherical powder that is like the fine sand of a Florida beach...

    During the powder shortages or '09 and '13 I loaded through 10#'s of Unique... It certainly works, but it is, well, unique...

    http://instagram.com/p/BWO6_E-Ae8i/

  4. #24
    Member olstyn's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Les Pepperoni View Post
    During the powder shortages or '09 and '13 I loaded through 10#'s of Unique... It certainly works, but it is, well, unique...
    Unique was the powder I started out with when I was first learning reloading. It does the job, and there's data for tons of calibers, but it meters poorly (like +/- 0.2 to sometimes 0.3 grains where N320 and CFE Pistol are both +/- 0.1 grains or less for me) and it's dirty. 4.7 under a MG 124 JHP @1.075" made ~130 PF from a 3.5" barrel for me, so you can definitely do action pistol loads with it, but it's far from optimal. 4.2 of N320 made the same velocity with noticeably less blast/recoil, was LIGHT YEARS cleaner, and produced far lower SD numbers. 5.0 of CFE-P made the same velocity, had about the same recoil impulse as Unique, metered better, was cleaner, and produced SD numbers that were close, but not quite as good as N320. I've still got ~1/3 of a pound of Unique on my bench, but it'll be my powder of last resort if I manage to run out of everything else somehow.

    Now that I'm shooting a longer-barreled gun and using coated bullets at a bit longer OAL, N320 only needs 4.0 to get the job done, so I'm sure the charge weight for Unique and CFE-P would be lower, but that arguably makes Unique even worse, because the variations produced by its poor metering characteristics would be a larger percentage of the total charge weight.

  5. #25
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    A downside to CFE-P is that one could easily double-charge a case with it, it's so dense. By contrast, a book-max standard-pressure load of 5.8 grains of Unique under a 124-grain FMJ in 9x19 almost fills the case. The Unique load runs 1135 fps from my PX4, so it's a good stand-in for +P HST (1186 fps). Hopefully I can replicate that with CFE-P.

  6. #26
    Member olstyn's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by revchuck38 View Post
    The Unique load runs 1135 fps from my PX4, so it's a good stand-in for +P HST (1186 fps). Hopefully I can replicate that with CFE-P.
    I expect you'll be able to get there. Some folks shooting USPSA Open division use CFE-P to load 9mm to major power factor, pushing 124 gr bullets to close to 1400 FPS. Granted, that's way over book max through a gun with a fully-supported chamber specifically built to handle it, but just under 1200 shouldn't be too tough to make happen within a more normal pressure range.

  7. #27
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    Hodgdon's data shows 5.5 grains giving a 124-grain Berry's HBRN 1120 fps. I'm out of bullets right now but have about 2k loaded, it'll probably be next month before I try it out. I've got >1k of 40 to load first.

  8. #28
    Quote Originally Posted by willie View Post
    I learned something. Reading the link showed this powder to be ideal. I was ignorant of its usefulness since I'm locked in to a giant supply of older powders. Will buy a can.
    Giant supply of what older powders?
    Why not use them?
    Code Name: JET STREAM

  9. #29
    Member GuanoLoco's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Hambo View Post
    And CSB1M is a Universal equivalent. I bought a ton of it cheap and use it in 9mm and .45acp, but there isn't much data for anything else. I have read guys who are working with it in other calibers.
    It’s awesome sauce in 9mm but I don’t load in other pistol calibers. I’ve written on it before.
    Are you now, or have you ever been a member of the Doodie Project?

  10. #30
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    Quote Originally Posted by willie View Post
    I learned something. Reading the link showed this powder to be ideal. I was ignorant of its usefulness since I'm locked in to a giant supply of older powders. Will buy a can.
    I definitely will continue to use the tried and true powders. Out of curiosity I might experiment with a can of this newer powder. Sometimes I enjoy shooting low velocity cast bullet loads in some center fire rifle calibers. For this Unique is very useful. Perhaps the powder mentioned above will have magical powers and with it I can produce even more accurate ammo with which to shoot stumps and dirt clods.

    The older powders are Red Dot, Green Dot, Unique, Bullseye, 2400, IMR 4227, HS-6. I won't live long enough to exhaust the supply. Somebody will hit a homerun at my wife's yard sale.
    Last edited by willie; 12-03-2018 at 01:17 AM.

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