There has been Unique, and 2400 both in the house since I can remember back in the mid to late 60's. Throw in H-4831 and that was about all one needed to load just about any caliber. Might not always have been the absolute best at anything but you could always count on getting something accurate enough to punch the bull out of a target or put meat on the table.
Sometime back around the mid to late 80's I decided to narrow down my powders to ones that would cover broad based loading. Unique was one of the first I purchased in an 8# jug, followed up by 2400, H-4895, and 4831. Like mentioned above they might not be the absolute best at any one thing, but they will load everything I have sitting in the safe and cover a range of bullet weights doing so.
When the buying spree hit, I was sitting pretty, and never had an issue to worry about running out of anything. I learned when Clinton was in to be prepared for anything that might come up. So this time around I was set.
I did however start to cast my own bullets a year or so before that. When I did I found new uses for these powders and also for some of the others I had tried but neglected like Bullseye, and some of the Dot powders. It only took me a short time to acquire a quantity of each one that would fit my shooting needs the most. As such, I could probably say I have changed my loads accordingly. Now instead of loading mostly Unique, I am throwing more Bullseye. It is simply far to easy to use and the loads I DO use with it are superbly accurate and only take a small amount to get the job done. Heck even a one pound can seems to last forever, much less an 8# jug. When I got my 9mm's I found that 4grs worked great over several different bullets as well as using the same load under the 185 or 200gr SWC's in my 45's. Now the only thing I have to change is dies and shell plates when switching calibers on my progressive.
With the Unique though, I throw the charges using my Uniflow and have not found any issues in getting wide swings between throws. These all are run atop my progressive and fall within a tenth or two of the same load. For what I am shooting it in this is PLENTY close enough.
I have several powders that I like to have, but I have some I will never be without and the ones mentioned above will do me just fine.
Sometime back around the mid to late 80's I decided to narrow down my powders to ones that would cover broad based loading. Unique was one of the first I purchased in an 8# jug, followed up by 2400, H-4895, and 4831. Like mentioned above they might not be the absolute best at any one thing, but they will load everything I have sitting in the safe and cover a range of bullet weights doing so.
When the buying spree hit, I was sitting pretty, and never had an issue to worry about running out of anything. I learned when Clinton was in to be prepared for anything that might come up. So this time around I was set.
I did however start to cast my own bullets a year or so before that. When I did I found new uses for these powders and also for some of the others I had tried but neglected like Bullseye, and some of the Dot powders. It only took me a short time to acquire a quantity of each one that would fit my shooting needs the most. As such, I could probably say I have changed my loads accordingly. Now instead of loading mostly Unique, I am throwing more Bullseye. It is simply far to easy to use and the loads I DO use with it are superbly accurate and only take a small amount to get the job done. Heck even a one pound can seems to last forever, much less an 8# jug. When I got my 9mm's I found that 4grs worked great over several different bullets as well as using the same load under the 185 or 200gr SWC's in my 45's. Now the only thing I have to change is dies and shell plates when switching calibers on my progressive.
With the Unique though, I throw the charges using my Uniflow and have not found any issues in getting wide swings between throws. These all are run atop my progressive and fall within a tenth or two of the same load. For what I am shooting it in this is PLENTY close enough.
I have several powders that I like to have, but I have some I will never be without and the ones mentioned above will do me just fine.