Unique Smokeless Powder

"Unique"

 Unique is a great powder and shoots well in just about everything out there. Unique was introduced by Laflin & Rand in 1900 as a shotgun powder. This is a very fast burning pistol powder and is in no way a bulk powder. Very popular among Cowboy Action shooters, an 8gr load with Lyman's 427098 205gr LRNFP bullet produces a mild 8,335psi. 10gr using Acme's 200gr Magma produced 1,419fps @ 14,000psi. 12gr with the same bullet produced 1,636fps @ 21,786psi which could be higher than 26,000cup.

 18,000psi should be close to the 22,000cup pressures offered by Winchester at least by 1910. The only problem with using this powder is a chance of a double charge that could be catastrophic in Group I rifles and most revolvers which could produce nearly 30,000cup.

​Early 1937 revolver load data shows this powder being used with 140gr up to 250gr bullets. Typical 205gr cast lead bullet shows 10.9gr, 1,100fps @ 15,000 pounds of pressure. The two main powders for revolvers by 1937 were Unique and Bullseye using 205gr-210gr cast lead bullets. Loads gave pressures from 9,000 - 15,000 pounds of pressure.

Top Left - a recent target using a popular 9gr load. Groups are fairly typical for the 44 @ 100 yards. I plan on updating this section with some revolver targets in the near future.

Some of my early revolver targets grouped