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Old January 28, 2007, 03:44 PM   #7
44 AMP
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Join Date: March 11, 2006
Location: Upper US
Posts: 28,839
Unique

Is a medium rate pistol powder. It reaches max pressure before you get the max velocity obtainable with slower powders. Unique is best for medium to medium heavy loads. For heaviest loads, use a different powder, one with a slower buring rate, for best results.

I use 10.0gr Unique (240gr cast) as a general purpose load in .44 Mag, but I can't give you a vel figure, as I haven't clocked it.

I also use 10.0gr Unique (250gr cast) for a heavy end load for my .45 Colt Ruger Blackhawk. This load has been clocked @ 1070 avg fps from my 7.5in barrel. Heavy and accurate in my gun. I can (and have) gone heavier, but I have no real need to, and the load is not uncomfortable to shoot.

The same load in the .44Mag seems hotter (of course), but not at the painful level, unlike some other loads I have used. Next time I load a batch of plinkers for the .44, I will go a bit lighter.

One of my old Speer manuals (first book I found) lists a max of 8.0gr with the 240gr lead (swaged) for 898fps from a 7.5 in Ruger. It also lists a max of 11.0gr for jacketed 240gr bullets, with a vel of 1300+fps. 10.0gr gets you a bit over 1100fps. Just work up carefully, and be sure your cast bullets are cast hard, or you are going to have a lot of leading. Even hard cast bullets will start to lead the bore when you get close to 1200fps, generally. gas check designs let you go quite a bit faster. For the really fast stuff, shoot jacketed bullets for less trouble.
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