Why cant you get Unique powder about anything else is available?

Try finding H322…

If you find out why, the answer will probably suffice for all kinds of powder and primers these days!

I laid in an obscene amount of Unique during the period I danced with a 28 gauge O/U 10-20 years ago. The shotgunning in general stopped for me (physical limitations) but handgunning picked up again and luckily a lot of those shotgun powders cross over into handgunning. Red Dot, Green Dot, Longshot, and the various iterations of Clays fell in with Unique in that regard. Then in recent years buddies who've aged out have laid a lot of powder and primers on me, such that I've passed a lot on to others, but I'm no fool and retained a sh*tload which when added to my own stash means that I'll never have to peruse the LGS shelves again. The downside is there's bunches of powders that've arrived on the scene that have gotten past me. So be it!

Who cares? New powders are new, but are they any better?

The targets and critters shot with either, won’t know the difference…

Precisely. Machts nichts at the end of the day.

Amen !

Unique is out there. On Dec 15th, Midsouth Shooters was shipping Unique in 1 and 8 pound cans.

I just received an 8# jug of Unique from Natchez Shooters!

Currently in stock at Midsouth!


Frog---OUT!

There was a keg here locally about a month ago and they wanted $399 so I passed. Picked up BE-86 which is supposed to be very close to it for $294.

Would be $350 for the Unique from Midsouth with the ship/hazmat. Guess I should have checked first. I bet BE-86 would be just as good but it being newer it doesn’t have the testing/data available like unique.

I've used BE86 a fair bit over the past year or two. It seems to work really well with jacketed bullets and monos, but I haven't gotten it to shoot cast as well as Unique in anything.

My 327 Fed absolutely loves it with just about any non-cast bullet, and the 45 Colt shoots it pretty fair, too.

CFEP has been kind of the opposite. It shoots really well with cast, but mixed results with jackets/monos.

I got a pound from nachos late summer.

There must be a half dozen other powders to use in place of Unique.
You folks need to broaden your horizons...

True enough, but when you have 8-10 pounds of the stuff sitting there.....

True, there are a lot of good powders in that ballpark, 244W, A#5, CFEP, Universal, BE-86, PP, etc. I use most of them, but Unique is just nice to always have on hand for its versatility. You can use it in dang near anything.

Unique is nice for its versatility and it has been around so long there is loads of data. I use it in 45 acp, 45 colt, 45-70, and had made some plinking rounds with it before in a 270. I think AA5 and BE-86 will be good alts but not having the data for the reduced loads in 45-70 etc. makes unique more desirable. Trailboss if available would be a good choice and I thinke some of the other SR powders etc. Will just have to do some looking but it was always nice having some unique on hand for that sort of thing.

Still Unique pounders @ Midsouth this AM.

The problem, and the reason I chide Unique-lovers, is that Unique has been hard to come by since the Barack Obozo administration. The only thing to concur is that low-volume, somewhat noob reloaders are just stuck in a rut.

I moved on from Unique back when Reagan was wrapping up his 2nd term.

Actually, I don't use much Alliant product at all because they are such a small producer and their prices are high. Everything they sell can be found elsewhere at better prices.

Some folks should do some google work & make a list of powder sellers. I found no less than a 100 #'s of the big "U" scattered at just 3 sellers today. I don't use it for everything, but use more of it than anything else.


Yep, but not as much load data for all of them put together than has been published & used for Unique. Some of those might be as versatile, but data rarely shows them to be.

Lilly white hands boys used to whine about it being dirty & supposedly it's been cleaned up some. Otherwise, Unique ain't broke & it's available, so it don't need to be fixed or replaced.

The new-ish Unique is a little cleaner. It looks a bit different than the older stuff, too. Not sure how long ago they changed it, but at least 4-5 years ago, because that's the last time I got an 8 pounder.

I mostly use it for 32 S&W Long, 32 H&R, and 375 Win cast loads, so that 8# will likely last me the rest of my life with such small charges.

Recent reading about powders and first hand knowledge of availability in my area leads me to believe the manufacturers are slowly leading us to new offerings. The Unique is one that’s been tough to find while W244 and BE86 seems always around.

I get my theory from a couple online references to the efficiency of production of W244 and BE86 vs Unique, w231,HP38. I’m sure other comparisons have been mentioned in forums I’m unaware of but my hypothesis remains. Our old favorites are more costly to produce so manufacturers are trying to match performance of old favorites with new more efficient production technologies. They are “weening” us off favorites slowly. We’ll see I quess, I just bought some W244. Hope to work up to W231/HP38 performance.

Unique isn't all that dirty if you run some pressure.


It's reputation suffers because it is so good.
There are other powders that are terrible dirty at low pressures,
but they suck in those applications. So aren't used.


Folks run Unique at low pressure, and it does well.
Then they grumble about soot.


Try some hot 9mm loads with it.
Clean as a whistle.

I've messed with 244W quite a bit the last couple years. One LGS had a buttload of it fairly cheap during the lowest depths of the shortage, so I bought a few pounds to monkey with. I've gotten it to shoot pretty well with cast bullets in a few cartridges.

It does burn pretty clean, whether it's pushed hot or really mild. I haven't actually used much of it, because while it does shoot pretty good, CFEP or BE86 have worked out better for most of my applictions so far. Just loaded some test groups of 100gr XTP 32 H&R with it the other day, so we'll see how that goes.

As far as BE86 goes, one nice perk I've noticed about it is it picks up a LOT of speed through a carbine barrel vs a lot of other powders in the same ballpark. I'm getting just shy of 2000fps with 86gr bullets in 327 Federal from a 16" barrel... not bad at all for a little 8 grain pop. H110 and A#9 will outrun it by a bit, but it takes a lot more powder.

Gnoahhh, I was getting green at your stash until I looked. Now I'm only partly green.

If you're not finding data, it is because you won't look beyond your old manuals.
Skeeter and Elmer are both dead, yet load development has continued.

They still have 1 pound bottles, but they are fresh out of any larger containers of it.

Yep.

In the last 6 months, I have found Unique at Sportsman's Warehouse. In one pound and 4 pound containers.

Mostly one pounders at $40 a pound, but each shipment they get one or two of the 4 pounders.. Those were like $113 for 4 pounds, with my military discount. I went into a store 4 times within a month to 6 weeks, and each time bought the 4 pounder, sitting on the Shelf.

Same with Blue Dot. Use both powders for high volume sage rat shooting and range practice.

Unique this time last year, I was over at the range, and was ringing Steel at 300 and 400 yds off the bench. Did that over 4 or 5 month period. Shot 750 plus rounds doing that, with a charge of 8.5 to 9.5 grains, depending upon bullet weight, I went thru a little over a pound of Unique. This is in 223 cartridges.

And I had picked up 12 pounds of it, last spring.. to supplement the one 8 pounder I had left.

I'll be set for a while.