BCRider
Member
DCPlumber, near as I can tell it's only doing a bit over 650 fps most likely with that Unique loading. The Clays loading should be up around 800'ish fps. And yeah, at 650 fps it would be fine for close in stuff if the gun's rifling lets the bullets group well at that velocity. But it's a bit slow for anything further out or anything that's moving. Too much holdover for longer distances or too much lead for a moving target. And certainly not something I'd want to hunt with at all.
Rbylo1, the crud ring mentioned by PapaG is what you get in a .357 or .44Mag after shooting lots of rounds of the shorter Special case loads. If you then try to push any magnums in they will often stick on the ring of fouling left by the shorter case ammo. Clearly it's not a concern for you since you're using Magnum cases for your mild loads. The crud ring only becomes an issue after around a 100 or more rounds of the short cases.
The loading for Unique is just barely over the minimum suggested for .44Spl according to my Lyman book. The .44Spl load at 5.8gns is rated for a mere 670 fps. If you're shooting close in that would be fine. But much over about 25 to 30 yards and the trajectory would look like a rainbow...
The same book calls for 6.5gns of Unique for a max Special load and delivers 800 fps. Again that same amount of powder with the bigger volume of the Magnum casing would not hit the 800 fps level. Likely more like 750 or so. Meanwhile the minimum Magnum load for Unique is 10.8 gns for 951 fps. A nice 800'ish fps load for Unique would likely be around the 7 to 7.5 gn point.
Clearly you can range anywhere from your present 6 gns up to around 11 grns with Unique. The resulting bullet velocity will run from somewhere around the likely 650 fps you're getting now with the 6gn loading up to that 950 fps of the minimum Magnum loading. At some point you'll find a load which will give you the sort of velocity and flatness of trajectory you want for your plinking but won't hurt the hand like the full power loads. And some experimenting to find out which speed groups the bullets well would be adviseable as well. Most guns will have a "sweet spot" for each weight and type of bullet which grabs and works with the twist rate.
The reloading data website for Hodgon tells me that your Clays loading would have been around 800 to 850 fps. If you found this one to suit your tastes then you now know that you can load up to around that sort of velocity.
In any event the world is now your oyster thanks to being able to load to suit your own preferences. You just need to play around with some various bullet weights and try some cast vs jacketed loads at various weights and speeds to figure out what the gun likes for best and most consistent accuracy.
Rbylo1, the crud ring mentioned by PapaG is what you get in a .357 or .44Mag after shooting lots of rounds of the shorter Special case loads. If you then try to push any magnums in they will often stick on the ring of fouling left by the shorter case ammo. Clearly it's not a concern for you since you're using Magnum cases for your mild loads. The crud ring only becomes an issue after around a 100 or more rounds of the short cases.
The loading for Unique is just barely over the minimum suggested for .44Spl according to my Lyman book. The .44Spl load at 5.8gns is rated for a mere 670 fps. If you're shooting close in that would be fine. But much over about 25 to 30 yards and the trajectory would look like a rainbow...
The same book calls for 6.5gns of Unique for a max Special load and delivers 800 fps. Again that same amount of powder with the bigger volume of the Magnum casing would not hit the 800 fps level. Likely more like 750 or so. Meanwhile the minimum Magnum load for Unique is 10.8 gns for 951 fps. A nice 800'ish fps load for Unique would likely be around the 7 to 7.5 gn point.Clearly you can range anywhere from your present 6 gns up to around 11 grns with Unique. The resulting bullet velocity will run from somewhere around the likely 650 fps you're getting now with the 6gn loading up to that 950 fps of the minimum Magnum loading. At some point you'll find a load which will give you the sort of velocity and flatness of trajectory you want for your plinking but won't hurt the hand like the full power loads. And some experimenting to find out which speed groups the bullets well would be adviseable as well. Most guns will have a "sweet spot" for each weight and type of bullet which grabs and works with the twist rate.
The reloading data website for Hodgon tells me that your Clays loading would have been around 800 to 850 fps. If you found this one to suit your tastes then you now know that you can load up to around that sort of velocity.
In any event the world is now your oyster thanks to being able to load to suit your own preferences. You just need to play around with some various bullet weights and try some cast vs jacketed loads at various weights and speeds to figure out what the gun likes for best and most consistent accuracy.
