Another UNIQUE question

[glocksmith]

I didn't want to pirate the other powder thread below so I'm posting this here. You guys seem to know a lot about Unique. What do you think of my possibly using Unique in my .500 S&W loads? John Ross says he cautions against using powders any faster than WW296 or H110 in the mighty 500. I was willing to accept his advice until I found a loading in the latest edition of the Lyman Handgun Manual...which lists a starting load of 18 grs Unique + Hornady 350gr XTP and 1.985 OAL= 38 Kpsi. This seems ideal to me because I've got the 4" compensated barrel and I'm thinking I need a faster burning powder - which might reduce recoil and muzzle flash while keeping velocity at respectable levels. A lot of the guys out there recommend slower powders, but they're using 8 and 10 inch barrels. Are there any hazards to using a powder like Unique (or 2400) in the S&W 500?

[BobK]

Very few people know more about the S&W 500 than John Ross. If he is saying stay clear of Unique, I would listen to him.

Propellant choice is most heavily driven by case dimensions, bullet, and primer. If a load is the best load from a longer barrel, it will typically be a good load form a shorter barrel. Powder burn rate choices aren't going to drastically change just because the barrel is shorter.

[Sevens]

I don't follow the big gun gurus and what they recommend, but if Hornady has published a load, then Hornady as tested those loads in a ballistics lab with a lot of knowledge and high-dollar equipment.

You must know, however, that building a .500 S&W Mag load with Unique is just not going to bring you to the "elite" level of performance that a genuine .500 Mag load runs at. I know that some folks have spent a lot of time crafting .500 "Special" loads to give them a much lower-testosterone way of shooting their big X-frames.

If it were me and I were truly interested in building half-power loads for the .500 Mag, I'd also be looking in to cast lead slugs for the job. The later models of .500 Magnum X-frames were shipped with two different and swappable comps for the muzzle-- one for jacketed slugs and one for cast lead.

[glocksmith]

Very few people know more about the S&W 500 than John Ross. If he is saying stay clear of Unique, I would listen to him.

Thanks Bob and Sevens. Yeah, Ross knows his stuff, but a lot of his writings came out early - immediately after the 2003 debut of the 500. He is also a hot rodder and messes with 500+ grain bullets and 50,000 PSI levels. On the flip side, I do trust the Lyman data with my life, as they publish only those loadings which have been extensively tested in their pressure gauging hardware.

[stephen45-70]

I am a big fan of both unique and 2400 ...
However my experiance with unique and the 500s-w just wasn not good
Even mild midrange loads are beyond where unique works best ... inconsistan velocities was my problem
When using it ...
2400 should do a pretty good job of getting you where you want to be ... just keep in mind that
You might not acheive as good of acuracy as you will with full tilt loads

[glocksmith]

Thanks for the info stephen. If I can get my hands on a chronograph, I'll test them out and see if I too get a wide spread in velocities.