Unique in 9mm 124 JHP?

[Rmeju]

I'm new to reloading 9mm. I wanted a BUG, and settled on an M&P Shield in 9mm, which is on its way. I understand loading 9mm is less forgiving for the reloader than, say, .45, which is by far my highest volume pistol round, so I wanted to be a little more careful before getting started.

I ordered some Precision Delta 124 JHPs to practice with. I was planning on using Unique for these practice rounds, because I've got a lot of it. My Hornady manual gives a range of 4-5 gr for Unique with an OAL of 1.060", but I immediately noticed it filled up the case a lot farther than I'm used to. I did some OAL calculations, and quickly figured out that if I seated these things to 1.060" I was going to compress the powder.

After doing more research, I saw a few things:

1. Hornady XTPs should be seated deeper than other JHPs, so the 1.060" OAL in my Hornady book may well not be appropriate for my Precision Deltas, which might be better off with a more standard 1.120" (which would definitely give me some more room).

2. Unique can, apparently, be compressed without much of an issue, and people claim to do so, but I thought I'd double check on that here before doing it.

3. After looking at the Alliant website, it recommends 5.2-5.8 with a 124gr Gold Dot, with an OAL of 1.120". I thought this might be a good substitute recipe for what's in my Hornady manual. My one hangup is that I know Gold Dot is plated, but people seem to treat it similarly to jacketed, as far as how to load it up. Can I safely use this recipe with a 124gr jacketed bullet?

Thanks!

 

[RecoilRob]

Unique is a relatively 'fluffy' powder and one of the reasons it's so useful in 45 Colt which is a huge case as it fills it better than many others in the burning range needed. In 9mm it will fill the case for sure with max loads and in this case might be more a question of how much you can fit vs how much pressure it makes.

Published data for 124's should work with other brands of same weight bullet, but best to start at the beginning charge and work it up to max yourself....just to be safe. More than likely you'll be able to go all the way up, but you never know. Some guns have a tighter chamber than others and you might need to seat them deeper for yours which will increase the pressure vs the OAL used for the data generation. Be careful, keep your eyes open and shoot away!

Oh...be very, very careful with Unique metering because of it's large flake design will often try to bridge in the powder measure and throw a low charge here and there. I squibbed a couple 10mm's with it before finally figuring out my powder measure (Hornaday) doesn't like it so much....so each charge needs at least a visual inspection to make sure it's good to go.

 

[Comrade Mike]

No problems compressing unique. Just be aware of the metering problems it can have.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[LiveLife]

I know Gold Dot is plated, but people seem to treat it similarly to jacketed, as far as how to load it up. Can I safely use this recipe with a 124gr jacketed bullet?

Yes.

Gold Dot has reported copper plating thickness of .018" while jacketing thickness range around .015"-.030" - http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?p=10309500#post10309500

 

[Average Joe]

I've used Unique, and I have also used Red Dot. Both worked just fine.

 

[Hardtarget]

I've used Unique in 9mm and it shot very well. Function was good. These were X-treme 124 hp bullets. I load .45 acp also with Unique.

Mark

 

[rg1]

Unique is all I load in 9MM. I shoot all 124 grain bullets both FMJ's and HP's. My 124 FMJ's get loaded to 1.150" and hollowpoints at 1.120-1.125". Unique at 4.5 grains is a mild load. I load all 124's with 5.0-5.2 grains of Unique except the Speer 124 Gold Dots get 5.4 grains and gives 1134 fps in my Glock 19. I would start at 4.5 grains and work up into the 4.8-5.2 range. Haven't loaded any Hornady 124 gr.

 

[ArchAngelCD]

Just a note, if you're concerned about pressures in the 9mm Unique isn't the powder to be using. It meters very poorly especially with light charges and small changes in powder charge can spike pressures in the 9mm.

I like ball powders for smooth metering. I use a lot if W231/HP-38 in the 9mm but there are others like AA#5.

 

[s9ortner]

Unique is all I load in 9MM. I shoot all 124 grain bullets both FMJ's and HP's. My 124 FMJ's get loaded to 1.150" and hollowpoints at 1.120-1.125". Unique at 4.5 grains is a mild load. I load all 124's with 5.0-5.2 grains of Unique except the Speer 124 Gold Dots get 5.4 grains and gives 1134 fps in my Glock 19. I would start at 4.5 grains and work up into the 4.8-5.2 range. Haven't loaded any Hornady 124 gr.

+1

I've found my sweet spots to be 4.9 grains of Unique for Xtreme 124 grain HP's and 5.2 grains for 124 grain XTP. Both loads are very accurate for me.

 

[Shawn Dodson]

It meters well for me using an RCBS Uniflow powder measure on a Pro2000 progressive press. I load 5.8gr of Unique with 124gr bullets. It's been a very good standard training load for me. Good luck!

 

[Dudedog]

Unique shot well for me but did not meter very well thru my LPD. (+ or - .2)
I just loaded for the swing since I was not loading max loads.
IF you are after MAX velocity you would probably be happier with a different powder.
BE86 meters well, Longshot and CFE-P are two more good ones for "MAX" loads.

Checking my notes I liked 4.4gr of Unique with a 124gr bullet.

 

[Steve C]

How well Unique meters depends a lot on your powder measure. In the Rotary drum of my Hornady measure with the small pistol metering insert it will throw accurate consistent 4 to 6 gr loads when the powder settles after 3 or so drops that I can't measure the difference from drop to drop on my 5-0-5 Ohaus.

As mentioned Unique is a fluffy or at least is not a very dense packing powder being round flat flakes rather than the compact little balls found in ball powders. Don't worry about the appearance in the case or about compressing the powder as there's plenty of settle room once the bullets has been seated and the ammo is shaken when handled. Unique has been used for over 100 years and there is a good reason for its success and load data has been safe and successful in most cartridges since their introduction. Unique will produce some of the best velocities found in 9mm.

 

[wingman]

AA5 my all time favorite for the 9mm.