Is Unique Uniquely Smoky?

[BBDartCA]

I saw a guy shooting 357 handloads and there were rather large clouds of smoke. He said he was using Unique and thats normal for unique. I thought it was pretty damn cool! Is unique one of the more smoky powders? Are they also more dirty than others?

 

[GLOOB]

IME, revolvers with cast bullets are impressively smoky, no matter what powder. Under a jacketed bullet, no problem.

Out of an autoloader, my 9mm Unique cast loads are so clean I can rapid fire them indoors and most people wouldn't notice I'm shooting cast.

Cleanliness: I used to have some impressive white crud covering 1" of the business end of my 45, after a box of factory ammo. I reload 45 exclusively with Unique, and I've never had anything like that. After a hundred rounds, I can put my gun away without even wiping it off, and you'd hardly notice it had been shot. Internals pretty clean, too. I've tried 5 different powders, and all are equally clean. I think dirty ammo is often caused by loading a cartridge too light for that powder.

 

[FROGO207]

^^^ This, I have noticed that a lot of pistol powders do produce a LOT of smoke with lead bullets with lighter/slow burning loads. while using jacketed bullets will not produce the same results. FWIW I find that a light load and/or poor crimp will produce a dirty round in most revolvers. I find it really bad using Blue Dot with the 38 SPL in light (just above starting) target loadings. They are scary accurate but looks like I was shooting using black pepper rather than Blue Dot.

I agree with randyp that it is most likely that the smoke comes from the lube and I think the hot gasses time in the barrel allowing lube to burn.

 

[RandyP]

I am led to believe that most of the excess smoke shooting cast bullets vs plated or jacketed comes from the lube used with cast, not the powder?

 

[GooseGestapo]

Indeed.
I've used some bullet lubes that smoke very little (some of Thompsons and Javelina "synthetic" lubes).

Traditional 50/50Alox-Beeswax lube smokes some but not as bad as some others (Lymans "Ideal" bullet lube")

I tried to make some home-made lube from an on-line reciepe.

Looked like I was shooting black-powder or substitute !!! Very smoky and smelled like burning oil/and candles...... not real pleasant.....I used the remainder as flux for bullet casting. Oh, and smoldering tire valve-stem core's smoke and stink too! Ask me how I know!!! BTW, burning tires is illegal....
off topic but very common across the state line over in Alabama...... Frequently used by pulp-wooders to light off brush piles when burning off clear-cuts......
Unique is NOT UNIQUELY smokey.... Just the bullet lubes!

 

[ColtPythonElite]

What they said about cast and smoke is correct.

I have loaded plenty of JHP's with Unique in .357. It is very clean burning with them. Matter of fact, it burns cleaner in stout magnums than it does in .38's when using the same bullet.

 

[rbernie]

Unique does leave a waxy residue that is more noticeable than the carbon smudge from other powders.

 

[GLOOB]

If it does, I've only noticed it with revolvers + cast bullets. I figured it was bullet lube. Never noticed a bit of waxy residue with my semi autos.

 

[CraigC]

Most of the smoke is from the bullet lube.

 

[bdejong11129]

Yup, When I first started to reload I used Lead bullets and Bullseye and it was a smoky affair. I blamed the powder and switched to Unique. At the same time I stopped using lead and went with jacketed bullets and the smoke all but disappeared. When I rapid fire from my 45 I not longer am left in a smoke cloud. That and the leading issues are why I just pay a little more and use plated/jacked bullets only.

 

[psyshack]

I would rather shoot Herco than the over rated UQ.

 

[Maj Dad]

Traditional 50/50Alox-Beeswax lube smokes some but not as bad as some others (Lymans "Ideal" bullet lube")

I've never noticed smoke from pistol or revolver using jacketed bullets and any powder. Maybe there is a subtle nuance of smoke, but it isn't obvious. I use Unique almost exclusively in my daughter's 20 ga skeet loads and there isn't a trace of smoke. But cast loads? Looks like a Civil War re-enactment get together, and it's all from the lube. I bought some Lyman Ideal lube in the late 60's & it was black as coal, and smoked like the dickens. I didn't associate it with the smoke until I switched to another brand (don't recall, using Javelina right now) and it clicked. I believe the hard lubes like on MBC & Penn et al. smoke less, but they still smoke. Frankly, I like the smell, but then I like cod liver oil and sulfur water...

 

[Brianp90]

Is this the guy you're talking about by any chance?



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nn2XX81_kPU

 

[dagger dog]

The lubes for low pressure cast pistol bullets tend to light up easy and produce a lot of smoke, and they are intended to do that to keep down leading on relatively soft lead alloy target bullets.

Step up into the magnum class, and the lube gets harder along with the alloy because the pressures involved needs a harder to melt, less smokey, lube to be able to combat the leading on these rounds that are in the 1300-1500 fps class.

If he was using Unique he is probably shooting relativley low pressure .357 Mag, or possibly .38 Special.

 

[atblis]

I believe if you load unique up to full pressure, it burns cleaner. Works great in the 9mm with a 115 going 1200+ fps. Never noticed any smoke or excess fouling.

 

[1SOW]

Many powders don't 'burn' properly when loaded light (residue, smoke, soot).

For light loads the faster burning 'single-base' powders seem to burn cleaner.