Well I'm almost out of Unique...

I love Unique for my 20ga load, but ya, dirty stuff! I loved red dot, then Imr Red when i couldnt find the former, then E3 cause it was all i could get. I think E3 in my 12ga is just as soft shooting as Red, loaded for 1250fps, and wayyyyyy cleaner!

Yep. Unique is dirty. But I love how versatile it is.

I use unique for my big bore pistol loads.

WST.

Edit: That's not soot, that's unicorn dust from the magical Unique....

700X

Haven't loaded any trap rounds in quite a while but my go to back when was Red Dot. (Promo is kind of Red Dot with out the dots)
I would think for light 12 gauge trap loads you would want something faster than Unigue, like Red Dot, 700x etc
Never used them but Alliant says American Select and E3 are both supposed to be cleaner.

Most likely it will be more what can you get right now.

For trap loads, your statement about just about anything is probably accurate. Find what you can, there are a lot of powders that will work for 1 or 1 1/8 oz trap loads in 12 GA, finding any of them is the trick. You might stock some overshot/filler cards in case you need to tweak the case fill to get a good crimp.

Personally, I've found American Select, Clays, Clay Dot, Titewad, and WST to be among the cleanest I've tried.

Dudedog said:

Haven't loaded any trap rounds in quite a while but my go to back when was Red Dot. (Promo is kind of Red Dot with out the dots)
I would think for light 12 gauge trap loads you would want something faster than Unigue, Red Dot, 700x etc
Never used them but Alliant says American Select and E3 are both supposed to be cleaner.

Most likely it will be more what can you get right now.

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e3 and AA N100 have been available for the most part. For a long time e3 was the only Alliant powder at Powder Valley.

JMHO- I don't ever worry about any
kind of " soot" or any of that stuff as
long as the accuracy is there.
I have many cleaning patches and
a cleaning rod for everything I shoot

I use a lot of Unique since it covers
several bases for me. There's not
much you can't use it in with the
proper load.
That said, I do not shoot competitively
so my requirements don't mesh with
lots of other folks

I have read that Universal is cleaner. I just like what works but I can tell you that I have yet to use a powder, to include Universal, that didn't require a cleaning after a range session. The cleanliness of a powder is irrelevant to me as long as I am getting a consistent burn and good accuracy.

Hodgdon Clays works for me.

GeoDudeFlorida
AA Nitro 100 also works great in 45 acp.
Unique is my go to pistol powder with Universal, HP-38, BE, RD all close behind.

I’ve never understood in over 50 years of loading about this powder or that being clean. Never worked for me.

To me, we should be saying Less Dirty. The ones mentioned seem to be of that description.

On the other hand, maybe I shoot more rounds per gun per session than the average bear.

I have used 20/28 in place of Unique. I found it to be about 3-5% faster than Unique. Works great in 44spl. I am not recommending anything to anyone. This is my experience and you must use your own judgment. Best wishes

Ranger99 said:

That said, I do not shoot competitively
so my requirements don't mesh with
lots of other folks

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Amen and exactly!

I only compete with myself and my own skill levels. And I'm a pretty laid back competitor.
Dirty guns are part of shooting. I never understood folks getting all uptight about cleaning black powder or corrosive primed ammo, either. It's the same cleaning routine, even if the solvent changes a little or there's an extra brush-wipe-dry step every once in a while.

Unique is universal; but, Universal is not unique.

244 has a burn rate near Unique. Does anyone here have experience with it? LGS has it in stock.

Unique burns "dirty" with lower pressures, like many powders. I don't reload shotgun which runs to much lower chamber pressures than handgun ammo (like 12 ga @ around 11,500 psi average to my 44 Magnums @ 36,000 psi, max,). I couldn't find any Unique during obumma's term so I got some Universal which is very close to Unique in performance but meters better and shoots cleaner and I now use Universal in 80% of my handgun loads (but "clean burning" is of no concern to me as I choose powders by performance and I clean my guns after every range trip)...

tbob38 said:

244 has a burn rate near Unique. Does anyone here have experience with it? LGS has it in stock.

Click to expand...

Not in my opinion... it's more closer to W231 than Unique. I'll tell you it doesn't behave like Unique. Further, I think it is intended for metallic handgun loads only, not shotsell.

FWIW, I like it for .45ACP and 9mm.

I tried the New and Improved Unique 20 yrs ago. I gave up on it due to it's poor metering properties, have not bought any since. WSF is what I used to replace it. In the same burn range, meters accurately, burns clean.