Universal Clays??

[sniper]

I have a can of UC I am thinking may be a replacement for Unique.

So far, I have had little success in finding a mid-range load...125gr. @~1100fps/4" barrel, or a load for 158gr boolitz @~1000fps. These will be mostly cast, but I have a 250 Berry's 125 HP swaged and plated bullets. Because they are softer than a cast bullet, do they need special handling, or will the above loads be useful? What do you guys think?

Suggestions, please.
THX.

[runfiverun]

universal burns cleaner then unique.
i treat berrys and other plated like a cast just don't push them over 11-1200 fps.

[NoDakJak]

After forty years of fighting with Uniques poor measuring qualities I finally tried Universal Clays as a replacment without much success. I have finally adopted PB as a replacement for most of my mid range pistol loads. It has the same approximate burning range as Unique, goes through the measure like water and is possibly the cleanest burning powder out there. I feel that it is vastly under rated as a pistol powder. Neil

[MtGun44]

Clays burns WAY faster than Unique, but is very clean. For example, if you
follow the Hodgdon book, you can't even get full vel from the .45ACP 200gr
LSWC with clays before you overpressure. I have an 8 lb bottle and it is
great for a few calibers, and VERY clean burning, BUT it is a pretty limited
powder IMHO. Great for what it does, but it is narrowly applicable.

Unique is pretty UNIQUE. Not so good to meter in a lot of measures, a bit
dirty, but a super flexible powder that is very accurate in many pistol and
rifle calibers.

Bill

[Riverrat]

NoDakJak, Could you tell me the full name of PB? I hate to sound ignorant, but I am. I have seen other referances to it on this site and would apprieciate any clarification.

[NoDakJak]

Riverrat: PB is an IMR powder that is normally known as a shotgun powder. I first became aware of it about twenty years ago when a well known gun writer touted it as being "THE" accuracy powder in his Browning Hi-Power.
As MtGun44 noted above, Unique is certainly one of the most versital powders around and I still use a lot of it. BUT, not in cartridges where I have to load in large quantities. After an unfortunate incident with just dropping Unique from a measure I have resorted to weighing every load with it. PB has become my basic powder for standard velocity loads in 38 Special, 44 Special and 45 LC. I have also used quite a bit of it in light loads in the 25-20 and 32-20 but just don't know if it is flexible enough to replace Unique in the larger cartridges. Neil

[Lloyd Smale]

I tried it years ago. bought a couple lbs of it and thought it was the greatest thing id ever found. but found in the long run that id didnt compare to unique for accuracy. I have a 8 lb keg of it that rarely get used. What i did find though is that power pistol does about the same thing and is much closer to unique in accuracy. bottom line is nothing will ever replace unique on my bench.

[GabbyM]

To avoid confusion I'm going to point out that Clays and Universal Clays are two different Hodgdon powders. Universal is a “CLAYS” series powder with burn rate between their HP38 AND HS-6. Clays is their second fastest powder. After Titewad and before International "CLAYS".

[Scrounger]

I remembered why (I thought) it was called PB, but I Googled and got a different explanation. Here is information from the guys that make it:
http://www.imrpowder.com/pb.html
I used many a pound of it years ago in shotguns.

[Ricochet]

The original way of making the "Porous Base" was to mix granular potassium nitrate in with the nitrocellulose lacquer, then dissolve it out with water leaving holes in the nitrocellulose matrix. Presumably they recover the dissolved saltpeter.

[Riverrat]

NoDakJak

Thanks for the backround info. I have been using a lot of Unique and was looking for something that burned a little cleaner. I am going to try PB now that I know a little more about it. Thanks again.

Ed

[targetshootr]

I only use Universal now in 38 to 45. I fiddled with Unique, Clays, Red Dot, Green Dot, Titegroup, HP38 and tried Power Pistol but it looked like I was shooting black powder, lots of blue smoke that hid the target.

[walnutred]

I've pretty much replaced Unique with W231 in 45 ACP, 38 Special, 9x18, 8mm French Ordinance. 32 Long and 32 ACP. Still like Unique for some of the odd stuff I reload for though.

[MtGun44]

GabbyM -

Thanks for pointing out my error on the Universal Clays/Clays. I thought
that "Universal Clays" was the 'formal' name for what was normally called
'Clays' for short. Very wrong!

Bill

[sniper]

Thanks for the clarification.

My can (the one with the powder!) reads in big, black letters: UNIVERSAL, and down below in smaller, much harder to notice and read, white letters: Clays.

At any rate, there are recipes for .38 Special and 357 Mag. loads on the label, sooooo...I figure that anything between the two should be O.K.

My label is somewhat different than the one the current cans, which are less confusing. The new cans don't feature the 357 magnum load, tho.

That's reloading....just when you think you have it about figured out...

[jawjaboy]

[mj2evans]

I didn't think Universal Clays was all that much cleaner shooting lead vs. other powders. Universal was cleaner with plated bullets in 45 acp but I found the recoil to be sharper. As another post said I too have gone to W231 - meters very well and accuracy in 45 and 40 has been very good. My 30-30 likes Unique so I don't plan to completely give it up but I sure like W231.