View Single Post
Old January 17, 2001, 07:31 PM   #12
Johnny Guest
Moderator in Memoriam
 
Join Date: August 28, 1999
Location: North Texas
Posts: 4,123
UNIQUE IS THE KING OF PISTOL POWDERS!

It is without doubt the most versatile of them all, and is really quite accurate. Problem is, with lead bullets, it burns just a touch dirty.

It is my understanding that Hogdon's was striving for a grain-for-grain replacement for Unique when they introduced Universal. They very nearly did it. You CAN interchange load data IF and only IF you are nowhere near max loads. In .45 Colt, .44 Special and .40 S&W, lead bullets in each, Universal is noticibly cleaner-burning, which may be an issue if you shoot on indoor ranges at all.

But, as fond as I've become of Universal, I just haven't gotten around to trying it in .45 ACP. Reason is, a friend began buying W231 in huge quantities, and sells it to me very reasonably. Since I load many times more .45 ACP than any other cartridge, I've largely gone with 231. Try 5.4 gr. of W231 with a 230 lead round nose--runs about 820 from my five-inch guns, and at or slightly below 800 in my Commander.

I've also had excellent results with 231 in medium .38 Special 160 LSWC loads and fairly light .44 Mag loads, with 240 LSWC. And of course, it does well in 9x19 mm, with 124 gr JRN for practice loads.

You won't go wrong with either of Universal or 231, and, unless you just HATE cleaning guns, there's nothing wrong with Unique, either.

Best of luck - - -
Johnny
MOLON LABE!
Johnny Guest is offline  
 
Page generated in 0.02924 seconds with 8 queries