Unique and Cast in the .44 Magnum
Hi all.
Some years back my dad had bought a Ruger stainless Vaquero in .44 Mag for a woods-walking gun. He loved the pistol but was afraid of full-snort loads in in it, so I loaded him up some Lyman 429421 Keith SWCs over 10.0 grains of Unique for a nice easy-shooting load that would still be effective against critters should the need arise.
Since he passed I have inherited the pistol and three 20-round boxes of those handloads. It's a lovely combination. It occurred to me to wonder what velocity I'm getting with it? Extrapolating from existing load data I think I'm just shy of 1000 fps, which puts this load firmly in .45 ACP territory. Which, there are no flies on that you might say.
My only quibble is that Unique is a sooty powder, and I'm wondering if I can replicate that load with some Blue Dot. Blue Dot burns cleaner for me.
-AaronB
Unique and Cast in the .44 Magnum
by Hoot 
, Diversityville, Liberal-sota, Wednesday, September 10, 2025, 13:33 (1 day, 8 hours, 38 min. ago) @ AaronB
Warning: I've only noodled around with this tool a bit so....FWIW
Gordon's Reloading Tool shows 10gr. Unique under a Lee 240gr. bullet produces 26,649psi and 1143fps from a 6" barrel. Changing to 15gr. Blue Dot produces 24,767psi and 1181fps. It also warns of low burn rate and inconsistent combustion.
The components were chosen from the existing lists and not tailored in any way. I would use these results very cautiously. But my guess is BD is a tad slow for the application.
If you have any of that nasty old dirty Unique
that you don't want, I would gladly take it off your hands and help keep your guns cleaner. 
--
Ele era velho.
Ele era corajoso.
Ele era feio.
Burning dirt!
by Slow Hand 
, Indiana, Wednesday, September 10, 2025, 19:43 (1 day, 2 hours, 28 min. ago) @ JimT
And I’ll take all I can get!!
I ain't quite that rich yet
I'm very blessed, it's true, but I'm not so blessed just yet as to give away good smokeless powder.
That stuff's spendy.
-AaronB
Unique and Cast in the .44 Magnum
by Slow Hand , Indiana, Wednesday, September 10, 2025, 19:49 (1 day, 2 hours, 22 min. ago) @ AaronB
edited by Slow Hand, Wednesday, September 10, 2025, 19:54
Being low on Unique at the time of getting my Flat Top .44, and tried some W231. I had good results with 6.5gr and a 429421 in special cases and 11.0 in magnum cases. It was before I got my Garmin so I don’t have chrono data with me at present.
ETA some quick googling shows others chrono day of around 950 fps with the special load and 1280 with the magnum load.