loads in the twelve gauge shotgun and it may be used with smaller gauges. It is, however, also very good for 1-1/8 and 1-1/4 oz. It is my handgun projects that would suffer most if Unique were to disappear. I believe most shooters consider it to have greatest applicability for handgun reloading, and I agree. That is not to say it is a top performer in all of those applications. Sound versatile? Yes, Allliant calls Unique the most versatile of powders, and that is perhaps the ground of its uniqueness. Unique can be used to boost pistol bullets, rifle bullets, or shot charges out the barrel of your chosen boomer. Unique is a powder of the “flake” variety, being actually composed of small disks about 0.06″ in diameter. Other, minor components are included in modern smokeless powders and this, along with fabrication of powders as flakes, balls, or sticks leads to the myriad of powders available for pistol, rifle, and shotgun today. The successful product that resulted in 1888 was called “Ballistite.” In the present day, smokeless propellants still contain either nitrocellulose alone or nitrocellulose and nitroglycerin, and are known as “single-base” and “double-base” powders, respectively. It was the Swedish chemist, Alfred Nobel, famous for using nitroglycerin to make “Dynamite,” that first investigated a mixture of nitroglycerin and nitrocellulose as a small arms smokeless propellant.
The two main components of Unique powder, nitrocellulose and nitroglycerin, were both invented in the 1840s. It is now made and offered by Alliant Powder, a division of the huge company, ATK (Alliant Techsystems), that also controls such well-known names as Bushnell, Weaver, Federal, Speer CCI, RCBS, Savage, and others. When Hercules Powder Company split from DuPont in 1912, Unique was one of the new company’s premier propellants and it has remained available to the present day. Smokeless powder development was centralized in the Dupont company after DuPont absorbed Laflin and Rand and Unique came out of that development. Going back to the beginning of the 20th century, Unique gunpowder is one of those good things. Good things last a long time in the shooting sports arena.
#CASES STICKING IN SMITH AND WESSON MODEL 18 LICENSE#
The SMITH & WESSON® and S&W® (logo) trademarks are used by ALTAMONT® under license from the Smith & Wesson Corp.This post describes the characteristics, applications, and tips for measurement of Alliant Unique gunpowder. If your Smith & Wesson model is a round butt, but you prefer the square look, consider one of our conversion grips! They are available in K/L and N frame sizes. If this is the case, then you will need to visually decide if your frame is round or square. Note: You will notice that some models may have been made in both a square and a round butt.
Within those three categories, your frame may be either square or round. K & L Frames are interchangeable when it comes to grips. Smith & Wesson guns fall into three main frame categories:
The information below is to help you determine what you have. To order a Smith & Wesson grip from us, you will need to know whether your gun is a J, K/L, or N frame AND whether it has a round or square butt.