I will soon be loading for a few pistol loads. I have only loaded for rifle so far and have not tried pistol caliber loading.

I would ultimately like to keep one universal powder on hand for all pistol calibers that I will be loading. I will be loading the following

9mm
45acp
375/38
and most importantly 45 Colt. My main conern is that it works the best for 45 Colt. As long as it works ok for the rest I would be happy.

what ONE powder would you choose to load for all the above calibers?
I have heard Unique or even Tightgroup for ado all powder. What are all of your opinions?

Unique will work very well.... unless you are going to try and load plus P 45 Colt loads in a super strong revolver like a Ruger or Freedom Arms.

I would have say Win-231. It Works very well in my 9mm.45acp,38 and 357 mag, and 44 mag.

HS-6

I would have to say W-231. I think Unique would do fine also but 231 gets the nod since it burns a little cleaner and meters well. IMHO

Any of the powders in this general burn rate range will do for most pistol loads. WW231 burns clean, meters well, and is usually cheaper than the others at local gun shows.

14. Vihtavuori N320
15. Winchester WST
16. Accurate Arms No. 2
17. IMR, Co SR 7625
18. Hodgdon HP-38
19. Winchester 231
20. Alliant Unique
21. Hodgdon Universal
22. Alliant Power Pistol
23. Vihtavuori N330
24. Alliant Herco
25. Winchester WSF
26. Vihtavuori N340
27. IMR, Co "HI-Skor" 800-X

unique

Unique!
My standard load for S&W mod 25s is 9 grs behind 255 gr cast bullets. Using this load I and my shooting buds have recycled thousands of pounds of wheel weights. Works well in Rugers, and Colt Anacondas.
I clean the revolvers every 1,000 or so rounds even if they don't need it.
Make a gallon of Ed's Red, carry it to the range in a one gal. paint can. When the revolver gets hot or you are thru shooting, drop the revolver into the bucket muzzle first, go exchange lies with your buddies for 10 to 20 minutes. Wipe off, swamp out the barrel with a few patches, put handgun away and go home. You are done.
Jim

Try Accurate Arms #5. Nearly the same burning rate as Unique but flows through a powder measure MUCH smoother. I have forsaken all other pistol powders for this one.

The guys who vote Unique put their vote in the right place! I will too!

I`ve burnt #s of unique in the 45LC and it`s the only powder I used in 44 spcl for lite practice loads for my M29.

Unique for sure. 231 & other sim. speed powders are only going to give you plinking loads in the .357 & 45colt. It is a bit bulky for the 9mm, but will do. I don't use it much but as I get older I like things simpler so I may just switch.

Like NE 450 no 2 said, as long as you aren't expecting the highest velocity then Unique is the way to go. A very close second especially if you are wanting slightly more velocity is Bluedot.

Steve,

Any reason for HS-6? I've used it in numerous test loads along with many other powders and I've experienced clumping coming out of the measure.

Unique doesn't meter well although you get a lot of shots out of one pound.

AA-5 has been good to me too and WW231 comes to mind as well.

If I get the time I'll share some test load data comparing group size to %RSD. It's graphed and where the two are lowest is what I'm after. The results vary a bit for caliber but I'll see if there's any commonality to determine but one powder.

Good luck.

Reed

Gotta go with Unique--not only because of its utility in the calibers you mention, but it does fine work in cast bullet rifle loads as well. If I were to have only one pistol powder available, it would be Unique. Not the absolute best for the calibers you give, but certainly very good for all.

Unique, it is has a versatility not matched by other powders. I burn as much of it out of rifles with cast bullets as I do handguns.

I'll be the odd man out here, and vote for Hodgdon's Titegroup. I have used in in .45 ACP, 9mm, .357, .41 and .44 mags. It is cleaner burning than Unique, a little lasts a long time, and it's versatile. You won't get top velocity loads in the magnums with it, but we're talking about a compromise, "one powder for varied rounds" powder. I really like it with lead bullet loads in the above calibers.

Oh, and cowboy action shooters like it because it is "position insensitive" in large cases like .45 Colt, .44 Special, .44-40, etc. (Meaning that it does not matter if the powder charge is forward, against the bullet or back against the primer.)

[ 06-05-2003, 02:19: Message edited by: Calif Hunter ]

Well, when I test Unique against others it doesn't seem to perform as well based on chronograph consistency as others. With pistols it doesn't necessarily translate to accuracy loss because we're typically shooting in close.

If anybody would like I would be glad to email some load testing data I have compiled for either 9mm Luger, 38 Super, 38 Special, 357 Magnum, 44 Magnum, 44 Special, and 45 ACP.

That's just my own conclusion to it's performance. It still does appear on load manuals for numerous different calibers so it is definitely on the "one powder" list.

Good luck.

Reed

Another 231 fan here. It meters superbly and burns rather cleanly compared to Bulleye or any of the "dots".

I'm wanting to switch to Tightgroup because I hear it produces a better extreme spread. I'd be glad to hear your opinions.

Paul

Here is my one major complaint about Unique. IT BURNS MY EYES!!!! Had to carry visine to the range for my burning eyes when we shot Unique. Switched to blue dot and the problem went away.

Only one vote for Titegroup? Why is that? I hear it is one of the more accurate powders out there. Is it not as popular as I have been lead to believe?

So far unique is way in front for number of votes. But if it is in fact a dirty powder I would like one that is a little cleaner.

Trapdoor, I can not get Unique to meter consistant with any of the 3 different powder measurers I have. That being said I still use it because I am only loading for one handgun caliber, a M.29 44mag. I have found that by using 8 grains of Unique behind a 240 grain cast the inconsistencies does not show up but I can not use my favorite load of 10 grains of Unique without weighing every charge or I will get a few sticky cases from charges over 10.5 grains. If I were to load for several handgun calibers or load to near max. with a fast burning powder I would definately favor the more reliable metering of W-231.IMHO

I would use AA No.2 or No.5 but rather No.5

heavy varmint and Reed,

I wasn't trying to make any accusations...just wondering why some have problems and some don't. It just seems strange to me...nothing more.

At any rate, I still love Unique!

It is a bit dirty, but that doesn't bother me. Seldom do I do a "thorough" cleaning. I just wipe the soot off the outside, oil, and put away, as it generally isn't long before I shoot that particular firearm again.

Currently, I am conducting an experiment with a Government...I refuse to clean it to see IF I can get it so dirty that it won't work anymore. Going on five years now with strictly Unique and cast bullet loads...ITs pretty guncky, but has it ever stopped functioning? Nope! Will it? For some reason, I think it'll shoot forever! Gotta' love a man that can design something like that...over and over and over again!

Unique may not meter that accurately, may burn a bit dirty, and if loaded lighter will have somewhat inconsistant velocities. That said, it is very versitile, and also performs extremely well.

My Ruger 480 SRH with a 310 gr bullet and ~9.7 gr unique will consistantly put 5 shots in or under 1" at 50 yds, and has grouped 3 into 1 1/2" at 100 yds.

My 350 Rigby with ~14 gr unique will push a 200 gr cast bullet a very consistant 1410 fps, and group shots into 1/2" at 50 yds.

The reason I give approximate weights is that I simply work up my loads using my Redding BR powder measure, and just use the scale to make sure I'm under max loads. I don't know how consistant, or inconsistant the thrown charges are, but the accuracy of my groups is more importatnt to me then the accuracy of the charge weights.

Paul,

Obviously your caliber choices may prevent the following experiment but if you were to select a "better" metering powder of similar burn rate I would suggest that it MIGHT be better at 100 yards but would almost assuredly be better at greater distances. Of course you may not care about performance at anything greater than 100 yards so why bother...

I would make this analogy. Short-range BR guys don't typically weigh individual charges and choose to speed up with use of a measure. Long-range (1k yard) guys typically weigh charges to get more uniform velocity as the lack thereof shows up at 1000 yards but doesn't really show up (at least to eclipse the other errors (mainly operator induced)) at 100 yards. The same thing is happening with Unique it's just that at pistol distances there are sources of error MUCH greater than that of velocity difference due to poor metering.

Just a thought.

Reed

I HAVE ALWAYS USED BULLSEYE FOR MY SINGLE LOADING POWDER. I LOAD .357MAG,.38SPL, AND 9MMLUGER EXCLUSIVELY UNDER CAST BOOLITS. ALWAYS HAD GOOD CONSISTANT LOADS AND NEVER ANY SURPRISES. I'M AWARE OF THE BURN RATE OF BULLSEYE SO I'M VERY CAREFUL WHEN I RELOAD NOT TO DO ANYTHING FOOLISH. I MIGHT GIVE UNIQUE A HARD LOOK THO.

I do get very small groups with Titegroup, even when shooting against the clock, and my buddies who have tried it have all switched from Unique. Titegroup is a very fine-grained powder, and it meters every well. Unique and 231 do seem to be the sentimental favorites, though.

I overload pistols to see how much power I can get before the gun blows up, case blows, etc.. My suggestions based on trying many powders are:
0) 7.62x25mm LONGSHOT
1) 32acp Power Pistol
2) .380 Power Pistol
3) 9x19mm Power Pistol
4) 9x23mm LONGSHOT
5) 357 mag LIL'GUN
6) 40 S&W 800X
7) 10mm 800X
8) 45acp Power Pistol
9) 45 Colt H110

Not with allot of experimetning, but some high energy experiments:
1) 25acp Power Pistol
2) 32 S&W Power Pistol
3) 32-20 H110
4) 357 Sig [hopeless, cannot get .380 potenial]
4) 38 S&W Power Pistol
5) 44 mag H110

Powders I tried that did not make the short list:
Red Dot
Bullseye
Herter's 164
SR7625
Unique
AA#5
HS-6
Blue Dot
2400
3N37
AA#7
N105
STEEL
Enforcer
AA#9
N110

Another vote for Unique.

It's availible all over. It's pretty cheap. It's very versatile. There are reams of loading data for this powder in all applications where it belongs (and some applications where it probably doesn't belong).

I would have voted for Unique too, but, I respect ricciardelli's opinion, and as I've never used hs6, I will shut up!

If I were to use just one it would probably be AA NO.5 if your loading jacketed bullets. For lead only I'd probably pick Bullseye as the single powder.