All purpose handgun powder???

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Mr_Flintstone

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When I first started hand loading, I couldn't afford lots of different powders for each caliber, so to keep things simple, I used the Hodgdon website to see which powder had load data for the majority of things I wanted to reload. As it turns out, there is a Titegroup load for nearly everything. I'm not saying it's the best option in many cases, but it can be used for nearly all common handgun calibers/bullet weights. As time went by, I experienced a few difficulties with some particular loads, and began to add a few powders here and there as my budget allowed. When I bought a can of Bullseye, I realized that it, like Titegroup, could be used for nearly every handgun caliber, and was a better option in some cases. Now that I have acquired a variety of powders, I realize that there are several other powders like Red Dot and Unique that could also be called "all purpose" powders; maybe not the best in all situations, but usable across the spectrum.

I know ideally we would all like to cherry pick loads for each caliber/bullet weight, but sometimes that isn't an option. If you were just beginning, and for one reason or another, only had access to a single powder for a variety of calibers, what would you choose.
 
Alliant Unique , Hodgdon Universal , IMR Unequal their names say it all. Don't get me wrong there are other powders that come close but for my money one those three are what I would buy if I only could buy one.
 
Hodgdon Universal has worked well for me. I use it to reload .380, 9mm, 9mm Largo, .40 and .45.

Universal and Unique seem to be very popular among pistol caliber reloaders
 
Unique is the hands-down choice for the new reloader. Not only is it useful for a huge variety of cartridges, it is far more forgiving for novice reloaders than the dense, high-energy powders like TG or bullseye. I've never played with Universal or Unequal, but if they are about the same (as they are marketed to be - not in terms of specific loads, but general characteristics), then those would also make fine choices.

The dense powders are great for nice little plinking/target/low-recoil rounds, but for any of the higher-pressure cartridges, they just won't get you very far up in velocity.
 
Both unique and universal are excellent and versatile pistol powders. Ive been using both for years and highly recommend them.
I use them almost exclusively in 357, 44 mag and 45 acp
 
Unique is nice but charge weights can vary a lot by percentage especially in smaller calibers because the flake size is so large. I'm fond of W231 as it flows and meters very nicely and seems to keep the works going smoothly, maybe due to the graphite in it that helps lubricate both the powder and the press. Identical to HP38. I'm not a very highly experienced reloader but it would probably get my vote as a do-all powder for low to medium pressure handgun rounds.
 
They named it Unique because it was, well, Unique. Its application was broad enough that it spawned two other imitators; Universal and Unequal.

I don't use a lot of Unique because I always sought to optimize my handgun loads at the expense of commonality of my supply, but if I had to pick one powder as the "all purpose handgun powder", I'd vote for Unique.
 
I found Universal a bit difficult to work with in low pressure cartridges like 380 and 38 special. It wants to be at near max to get good ignition.
I would say HP38 is pretty forgiving in the low and high ranges for common cartridges.
 
Unique. You can also use it for shotgun and even rifle loads. Lyman has amazingly high velocity published loads for 30·06 using cast bullets and unique.
 
I'm a very big fan of W231. I use it in most of my cartridges although I also have a powder or two for specialty loads I those cartridges too.

Way back when powders were few theoretical original powder trinity was Bullseye, Unique and 2400. My powder trinity is W231(HP-38), W540(HS-6) and W296(H110). You can load everything with either groups of powders. Soon I will be testing W572 to see were it fits and if it can replace one of the other Winchester powders. (most probably HS-6)

I currently load for 9 handgun carries and I can and have loaded all of them with W231 and did it well. The same can be said for Unique although I don't use it preferring W231 instead. Like said above, there are others but for me Titegroup would not be one of them.
 
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