At the request of a couple of forum members, I went out and tested Unique with a load of 11 grains.. ( I had ended the last one at 10 grains, and said 11.5 was popping primers..)

Well 11 grains might have some use, so I went out and tested them also...There was a noticable increase in noise when shot, over the 10 grain load, but all cases extracted easily...

So for the interested....

Unique, 11 grains..
Win SR primer
Lake City Brass
Ruger 77 Mk 2, 22 inch barrel..

30 grain HP/ Calhoon
a. 3300 fps
b. 3302 fps
A keeper

35 grain V Max...
a. 3077 fps
b. 3120 fps
This bullet has lousy BC, it is too short, accuracy stinks....Why does Hornady keep making this piece of crap???

37 grain HP/ Calhoon

a. 3075 fps
b. 3029 fps
I think this bullet and load are also a keeper

40 grain Sierra HP
a. 2929
b. 2951

Since this bullet is readily available, along with the spendier Ballistic Tip and V Max, and Blitz Kings.. I like this load the best..

45 grain Speer SP..
a. 2824
b. 2791

Velocity was okay, accuracy wasn't impressive..
Maybe a Sierra in the same weight would do better for accuracy..

50 grain Speer
a. 2690 fps
b. 2703 fps

This load was accurate, but a TNT, Blitz King, V Max, Ballistic Tip would be much better.. velocity is useful...

since 11.5 grains is max, I prefer most of the 10 grain loads of Unique... noise is much less...

also Blue Dot seems to heat the barrel up at a later point than Unique does....

so passing this on, work up etc.. this is for reference sake only... use at your own risk...

I wonder if anyone has tried Rex-3 powder for a load like this. I read that it is substituted for unique in shotshell loads(same weight) but has more bulk. Suppose to be about the same burn rate. It looks like it is half the cost of unique.

Even at half the cost, might not be worth it to save only one penny. Especially if you already keep unique around. Probably better off looking for a cheaper bullet?