Too much smoke on a calm day ... cough, cough aarrgh

[MartinBrody]

I was shooting 44 Mag using a 240gr SWC (GC) & 8 gr Unique with no wind at an outdoor range. After each shot I was standing in a cloud of smoke that smelled like burning tires for 10 seconds.

Is this the bullet lube (blue waxy stuff) or the powder? I also shot some with 7gr of Unique that smoked a little less but couldn't tell if that was because there was less powder burning or the bullet was moving slower not burning up the lube as much.

I really like Unique b/c I can use it for 44 Mag, 44 Spcl, 38 Spcl & 357 Mag. Maybe I just can't shoot it on a calm day. I noticed the smoke last time I was using this load but it blew away from me so quickly I wasn't affected.

 

[Hazzard]

I'd say yes. Sounds like the lube may be Thompson's Blue Angel high temp which smokes quite a bit in my experience and stinks a bit (but is very good lube). Unique is also a bit of a dirty powder and I've found it to be a bit smokey even with jacketed bullets.

I also like Unique and cast bullets so I live with it.

 

[HSMITH]

Lube makes almost all of the smoke. There isn't much if any you can do, and Unique is a relatively low smoking powder with lead bullets.

 

[MachIVshooter]

Unique is a relatively low smoking powder with lead bullets.

That's not been my experience with .45 Colt loads. Seems I always get a face full of foul smelling smoke and the occasional unburned powder bit gets into my eye. I switched to Blue Dot for these loads.

However, I've found Unique to be an excellent perfomer in higher pressure loads. I get good velocity and a clean, smokeless burn with Unique in .40 S&W.

 

[bakert]

My goodness. What is the world of shooters coming to. People worrying about a little smoke or soot. Things just aint like they used to be!!
BTW, you mght try Universal Clays for a somewhat cleaner burning powder.

 

[ACP230]

I have noticed some smoke from Unique on indoor ranges at times.
Outside it isn't a problem.

"I love the smell of Unique in the morning. Also 4895." ACP230

 

[CSA 357]

I loaded so much unique one summer when i passed gas it smelled like unique!

 

[Hazzard]

People worrying about a little smoke or soot

One on the reasons that unique and cast bullets doesn't bother me that much is that I also enjoy BP guns and love to shoot my Remington replica C&B revolver. Taken in perspective, unique isn't that smokey!

 

[Lloyd Smale]

the lube i makes smokes so much it reminds me of black powder but the crap works so i dont care. Plus it distracts my competitors when im shoot ppc along side of them. Especially indoors.

 

[Nhsport]

My experience showed me that the very light Unique loads are smokey and the warmer ones less so. This would lead me to believe that your smoke is mostly lube . You are running a mild (for 44 mag ) load you might try a different brand of bullets ( I assume you are buying these and not casting yourself) to see if some other lube would smoke less . I shoot a fairly stiff load with 2400 and have found a plain base bullet (no gc)works fine. This could save you some money .