Good General Purpose .357 Magnum load?

[Exiledviking]

AA5 and Unique are similar in burn rate.

I've read that Unique is very popular for .357 Mag and also read that Universal is very similar to Unique. Looking at the burn rates charts Unique and Universal are right next to each other, which is why I thought Universal would be a good .357 Mag powder.

[revolvergeek]

Take a hard look at Alliant BE86. It'll run from flat mild to completely wild. Super versatile powder that one.

But the BE86 could serve as a single powder for all handgun calibers for almost all shooters. It's that good.

In my limited experience with is BE86 seems be an extremely clean burning powder. Way cleaner any any of the old loads we traditionally cooked up with Unique or Red Dot. Unique is a great do all powder (Red Dot is awesome in smaller volume cases but not one to push for high velocity in big cases). When I use up what I have currently I am going to start working with BE86.

[revchuck38]

In my limited experience with is BE86 seems be an extremely clean burning powder. Way cleaner any any of the old loads we traditionally cooked up with Unique or Red Dot. Unique is a great do all powder (Red Dot is awesome in smaller volume cases but not one to push for high velocity in big cases). When I use up what I have currently I am going to start working with BE86.

I've been pleased with it in .38 Special, 9x19, and .45 ACP. I'm halfway through my second eight-pound jug. I've got about 2k each of 9x19 and .38 Special to load, then I'll get some more coated 158-grain LSWCs and see how it works in .357 Magnum.

[Spartan1980]

In my limited experience with is BE86 seems be an extremely clean burning powder. Way cleaner any any of the old loads we traditionally cooked up with Unique or Red Dot. Unique is a great do all powder (Red Dot is awesome in smaller volume cases but not one to push for high velocity in big cases). When I use up what I have currently I am going to start working with BE86.

I use it in place of Unique. I think it'll load almost any handgun caliber and do well, except for possibly the really big ones like 500 S&W, etc. I have no experience with those. If I was limited to a single powder for all handguns it would be BE86 that I'd want.

[03RN]

Fwiw a max charge of be-86 gets 1150fps with a 158gr swc