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Old March 31, 2006, 12:11 PM   #1
joneb
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Unique "New clean Burning" ?

Has anyone tried Alliants new Unique ? I have a can of it but need to use up the old first.
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Old March 31, 2006, 12:41 PM   #2
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It's still pretty dirty, IMO. I've burned a couple cans of it and have moved on to other powders. I've found Power Pistol to be much cleaner burning and it also meters worlds better than Unique.

PP has nearly the same burn rate as Unique and I've been quite happy with it's performance in 9mm, .357, and .45acp.
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Old March 31, 2006, 01:41 PM   #3
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Seems a little cleaner, but basically I agree with rnovi. Unfortunately I bought a 4 pound jug, so it'll be with me for quite awhile.

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Old March 31, 2006, 01:52 PM   #4
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From what I've heard unique is more accurate than PP. I'm going to be putting that to the test in a week or two.
Power pistol is canister grade bullseye84. Bullseye84 is chemically treated bullseye. It had bullseye's burn rate until it was chemically treated to slow it down. This chemical is on the outside of the flakes. The reason PP is cleaner is because once it burns off the inhibitor, it burns completely.
In other words, it takes a bit longer to burn completely than you'd think.
Accuracy with PP requires a long barrel to get that consistant burn. Unique's rate is controlled by the flake coarseness. It doesn't need long barrels for optimum accuracy.
Unique is pretty clean loaded to max loads.
But I agree, with starting loads of unique it's pretty dirty stuff. But it's accurate.
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Old March 31, 2006, 01:55 PM   #5
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If you shooot any powder at 20,000 PSI, it will be dirtier than when shot at 35,000 PSI. Max loads of unique are just as clean as Universal Clays, and we all know that UC shoots clean.
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Old March 31, 2006, 03:29 PM   #6
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I've found titegroup to burn a lot cleaner in 45acp than unique. But, that's a 16,000psi cartridge.

357 and 44mag have unique burning much cleaner, but I still favor titegroup since it meters more evenly. Pretty accurate, too.
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Old March 31, 2006, 03:51 PM   #7
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I was told, almost urged to try titegroup every time I mentioned I wasn't happy with my .45 colt loads.
I finally caved in and tried it. The accuracy was AWFUL. AND It smoked like a coal train.
Man, I know it metered fine, but it really shot bad.
Wasn't any cleaner than unique, no matter what anybody says.
I went back to unique. Actually, I never left it.
I'm sure I'm gonna get flamed for this, but I kept on getting told it was THE powder for .45 colt, and it just wasn't. People repeating what they've heard doesn't make it true, no matter how many times you hear it.
I'd rather shoot blue dot in .45 colt (WAAAAAYYYYYYY dirtier than unique at those low pressures.) than titegroup. At least it's accurate.
(After 50 rounds of blue dot, the gun looked like it was dipped in tar, dropped down a chimney 50 times, then baked in an oven to reduce the tar to carbon.
(At magnum pressures, blue dot burns fairly clean.)
I still haven't solved the .45 colt conundrum to my satisfaction, but until I do, unique will be my go to powder.
I keep on hearing that Trail Boss is the powder for .45 colt.....
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Old March 31, 2006, 03:59 PM   #8
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caz223 -

My 45acp brass, loaded almost exclusively with about 4 pounds of Unique over the last 3 years (started with Win231, 1lb, then 4lbs Unique, then my first pound of Titegroup) has carbon/gunk all around it. Of course, I have never cleaned it up until a couple of weeks ago. My glock's muzzle, or my 1911's muzzle, is caked in brownish-black smear after 50 rounds of Unique, but it takes 100 or 150 rounds of Titegroup to get the same nastiness. The brass comes out much cleaner, too.

But, I haven't tried their "New" unique (if this "newer-new" unique is newer than the formula change they did a few years ago, too, that was supposed to be cleaner).

I only keep Unique on hand now for loading 100gr 30-30 plinker loads, and as a backup for when I run out of Titegroup. One of these days, I'll get brave and experiment with 30-30 plinker loads and Titegroup. Until then, I'll stay with unique for that.
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Old March 31, 2006, 08:00 PM   #9
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Unique sure works good and is very accurate with my 44 mag target loads. If it is truly cleaner burning ,I would hate to see how bad the old stuff was.

For me it isn't really how dirty it is but how hard it is to clean off the gun.
H110 gets my gun just as dirty but wipes right off. I spend 15 minutes rubbing the cylinder face with a lead-away cloth after a range session with Unique.

But I will never live with those nasty black rings like some folks will.
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Old April 1, 2006, 01:36 AM   #10
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would Universal Clays or WSL be a good substitute for Unique ? I've had good results with W-231.
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Old April 1, 2006, 02:07 AM   #11
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They won't be any cleaner.
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Old April 1, 2006, 07:02 AM   #12
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I don't know, maybe it's something about titegroup and lead bullets. *Shrug*
I haven't tried titegroup in .45 acp to compare it to unique in .45 acp, but I just can't believe it would be as accurate. I guess I'll never know. Speculation on my part.
I'm gonna try power pistol in .45, but if I can load 9mm and .45 with unique and it's accurate, I really don't care how dirty it is. I really like WSF and HS-6, and they're pretty dirty in .45 acp, too. I guess I like dirty powders.
It's all relative I guess. I picked up some .40 and 9mm range brass 'WIN NT' and that stuff was clean, I mean it looked like new brass. I'd like to know what powder they use it that, it certainly wasn't unique. I'm also pretty sure it isn't available to handloaders.
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Old April 1, 2006, 01:17 PM   #13
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caz, some of that 9mm range brass could be trimmed to 18mm to load for 9x18 makarov.
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Old April 1, 2006, 02:16 PM   #14
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I'm always more interested in accuracy than clenliness. All modern smokeless powders are clean enough when used as intended.
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Old April 1, 2006, 04:54 PM   #15
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Lol, I guess if you compare unique to black powder it's not that bad....
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Old April 1, 2006, 05:33 PM   #16
918v
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Why don't you compare Unique to Universal Clays. They both leave the same amount of crap in the gun when used above 30000PSI. Don't you agree that Universal Clays is clean?
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Old April 1, 2006, 09:30 PM   #17
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Fired thousands of rounds loaded with (old) Unique. It's a little sooty, but I don't consider it "dirty" at all. I use it in my 9mm 124gr loads. I haven't used the "new" Unique yet.
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Old April 1, 2006, 11:06 PM   #18
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My only complaint with Unique was that it didn't meter particularly well, which resulted in me switching to Universal Clays. I pretty much use W231 for lmy 'fast' powder these days.

Does the NIV Unique meter better than the old stuff?
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Old April 1, 2006, 11:53 PM   #19
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No.

But it gives very nice load densities.
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Old April 2, 2006, 08:59 AM   #20
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been loading up some of the New Unique have never tried the old stuff.

fired off 5.6gr behind 180gr Rose FMJ in 40sw. the smell was not pleasent. it metered nearly as good as PowerPistol but I would occasionally get -.1 light throw. fired 50 rounds and it the gun was not all that dirty afterwards. I also fired off 50 9mm loaded with 5.5gr unique behind 124gr Remington 124gr FMJ.
the accuracy was nice in both and neither gun was horrible dirty. PowerPistol is only slightly cleaner though I have fired some light loads of Pp that left my gun dirtier than what Unique did. good full load of Pp is hard to beat for clean usually can clean barrel with a dry patch 1-2 runs.

fired off couple rounds of 9mm with 5.8gr of Unique with 124gr Bullet 1.125" OAL IIRC no stain left in the casings the exterior of the brass had no blowby exhaust and barrel was left nice and clean.

just load some 40 universal loads yesterday it was a pita. never measured consistentyly for me it was never right on for measurement always off consistently -.1 or +.1 sometimes throwing +.2 no matter how much adjustment I made with 5.4gr and 5.8 gr loads the 5.8gr being max in 40sw for 180gr

havent gotten to shot off Universal yet to see how clean it is. I remember being told Universal can give pressure spike but wonder if the issue wasnt really odd density and throwing a + charge which could easily jump fps and pressure.

find it harder to load double charge of Unique than Universal. if I had to decide right now I would ditch Universal but I havent shot it yet. hope it starts measuring better or it will be gone from my loading table.
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Old April 2, 2006, 09:14 AM   #21
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Unique meters well for me, shoots good, is a bit dirty, and I will not use anything else........
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Old April 3, 2006, 02:09 AM   #22
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I load 7.2 grns of old Unique w/185 gr nosler jhp for my Marlin camp .45 and it may be a bit sooty but the accuracy is amazing.
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