Switching to Unique in my 44-40s. UPDATE match report.

[Tuolumne Lawman]

I have been using 2400 and WW231 for my .44-40s.  I have been happy with them, but WW231 was better in the revolvers and Alliant 2400 was better in the 1894 Marlin Century Limited.  After some research, I think I have settled on 9 grains of Unique.  After I shoot up the last of my WW231 loads at the River City Regulators match tomorrow, I start loading the Unique with the 200 grain Bear Creek moly coated bullets.

From what I have seen in Taffin's articles, it seems to do equally well in both revolvers and rifle.  I know the usual CAS load with Unique is 7 to 8 grains, but I want one load for CAS, long range plinking, and coyote busting.  According to Taffin, 9 grains of Unique approximates the original 40 grain BP load in balloon head cases of 1350 fps in rifle and about 950-1000 fps in revolvers, though it would be max for toggle-link steel frame rifles.  

At 1350 fps, it will be 1.8" high at 25 yards, 2.8" high at 50 yards, 2.2" high at 75, zero at 100, and -4" at 125 yards.  That makes for a good 100 yard coyote gun.

[Delmonico]

After over a 100 years, Unique is still one of the most useful powders around, despite the fact some people seem to dislike it just because it don't leave the gun cleaner than when you started.

[Coal Creek Griff]

That's the load I've been using.  It works a lot better than my former W231 loads, but my MV is under 1200 fps from a 20 inch barrel with 215 grain bullets. 

CC Griff

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[rickk]

I use it for 90% of what I shoot... it works in just about anything with a straight wall and sometimes not so straight.

[Tuolumne Lawman]

I tried the 9.0 grains of Unique under a 205 Meister .428 moly coated bullet at the River City Regulators match last Sunday: I absolutely loved it!

Both .44-40 pistols (one a newer EMF Californian, blue with smokeless frame 5 1/2" barrel, and the other an older EMF Hartford (Armi San Marco) nickel with BP frame and 4 5/8" barrel) shot to POA at 7-10 yards.  While I did not group on paper, they seemed ti hit exactly where I pointed it, with little deviation (I shoot Duelist, so there would be some deviation).

The 1894 Marlin Century Limited .44-40 really liked the load, too.  Fed smoothly, and seemed to hit from about POA to one inch above POA at 15 yards.  I plan on taking the Century Ltd. out to BLM land and doing some long range plinking with the 9.0 grain Unique loads to check it out.

Taffin lists 10 grains of Unique as max for SAA revolvers, though these 9.0 grain Unique loads were definitely the hottest load I would use in CAS.  I do believe Taffin's assertion that this load duplicates the original load of 40 grains of BP in velocity and performance, as they seemed almost identical to the felt recoil of some 38+ grains of FFFG under a 200-205 bullet .44-40 loads that I have used.