Yeah, What Jim said.
When choosing:
- Caliber/cartridge
- Bullet design
- Load configuration
- Firearm
First define the purpose. With a different powrder, other than pure experamentation, are you looking for more accuracy? Cleaner burning? More/Less velocity? Safer charge? Cheaper shooting?
OK, Unique is more versital but not as clean burning as 231 in the calibers you've mentioned. But, a double charge is less apt to hurt anything. So, it can be regarded somewhat as a safer powder to load, especially if you're downloading. And it down-loads quite well. The others in this thread may not do that quite as well.
Bullseye and Titegroup are highly regarded for accurate 45acp.
Universal Clays also has a strong following for .40 and .45acp.
AA#5 -although I've never used it, should be very good.
There are many powders listed in this thread, but you'll seldom find that ONE fits all needs across a caliber or series of calibers. (Except Unique) I shoot four different powders in my .44mags, all four with different bullets.
Same with my other guns. My 38's usually get fodding doses of Unique. Same with 9mm when I had one. My 45's get Bullseye, Unique, or 231 with different bullets. The .357's yet three different powders with as many or more bullet choices.
-Steve