Best caliber for noob reloader?

[Strangeranger]

I started with 9mm and Unique powder. It's hard to get it wrong. 45 ACP is even easier, big fat case to work with. Plenty of data available on both. Start with a starting load out of a manual and work your way up.

Unique does not meter consistently in either Dillon or RCBS measures. Throw and weigh 20 consecutive charges and you'll see what I mean. WW231 is much better and HS6 is even better yet

 

[nklf]

I used unique for years. It measured fairly well but I was using a C&H measure back then. If you weighed the charges there would be minor variances in weight but it always shot very consistent over the chronograph.

 

[bimus]

Unique is good for all the hand gun rounds that where listed and good for rifles when used with cast bullets .
308 Winchester 164 grain cast with unique 11 grains runs about 1383 fps

 

[Loco]

This is excellent info, guys! Thanks again and Merry Christmas.

Hopefully, Santa is bringing some .45 and .357 bullets, a reloading setup, and a huge bag of brass...

 

[sniperdoc]

This is excellent info, guys! Thanks again and Merry Christmas.

Hopefully, Santa is bringing some .45 and .357 bullets, a reloading setup, and a huge bag of brass...

I hope he does!

 

[wanneroo]

Unique does not meter consistently in either Dillon or RCBS measures. Throw and weigh 20 consecutive charges and you'll see what I mean. WW231 is much better and HS6 is even better yet

I don't think it meters perfect in anything, with my RCBS measure it does ok. Thing is at the time the ONLY powder I could get for loading pistol here in rural PA at the time was Unique. This was 2013 during the great scarcity of ammo and reloading stuff.

 

[Strangeranger]

Unique meters ±0.3 grains in my Dillon. WW231 meters ±0.1 grains. HS6 meters ±0.0 from a full measure to quite literally the last charge in the bottom of the measure. If you're making full power 9mm ammo for a subgun, ±0.3 is unacceptable. If you're making moderate practice ammo for a .45 it's not so critical. I use 231 in both mostly because I buy 231 8 lbs at a time and because I can't find an HS6 load for .45 that I like as well as my 231 load. FWIW WW231 and Hodgdon HP38 are the exact same powder, just different labels on the canister