WINCHESTER WINCLEAN 244 IS A RELAtively new powder, one produced under license by Hodgdon. Out of the blue, the company sent me a can to try, and, hey, I never look a gift horse in the mouth. While this powder is supposed to be ideal for 9mm, .45 ACP and
.38 Special, I was in the process of
developing a .44 Special load using
Oregon Trail’s Lasercast 240-grainers for my Ruger GP100, with the
Smith & Wesson 629 in there so I
could compare speed from a threeLQFK EDUUHO YHUVXV D ÀYH LQFK ,·Galready tested IMR Red and IMR
Target, so when the Winchester
showed up, I added it to the test
and included Alliant Bullseye, too.
WinClean powders have aFRSSHU ÀJKWLQJ DJHQW ZKLFK ,didn’t test here, and also promises
cleaner burning. Lead loads are
sooty to begin with, and at least anecdotally I thought the Winchester
loads were cleaner than the others.
A ball powder, it metered very
well through my RCBS Chargemaster Lite, which threw every charge
in the test. I also threw 10 charges
of 5.1 grains (0.1 grain under max)
through my ancient Lee volumetric
measure. Six were 5.1 grains, two
were 5.0 grains and two were 5.2
grains. That’s good enough for me.
I’m not sure whether Winchester
244 will be my trail load. It shot
well, with the exception of that
outlier with the 4.8-grain charge,
but I’m looking for more velocity.
However, with its excellent metering, I think 244 is going to be my
go-to powder for .38 Special practice loads with Hornady 125-grain
XTPs. I’ll report back on that in a
future issue
.38 Special, I was in the process of
developing a .44 Special load using
Oregon Trail’s Lasercast 240-grainers for my Ruger GP100, with the
Smith & Wesson 629 in there so I
could compare speed from a threeLQFK EDUUHO YHUVXV D ÀYH LQFK ,·Galready tested IMR Red and IMR
Target, so when the Winchester
showed up, I added it to the test
and included Alliant Bullseye, too.
WinClean powders have aFRSSHU ÀJKWLQJ DJHQW ZKLFK ,didn’t test here, and also promises
cleaner burning. Lead loads are
sooty to begin with, and at least anecdotally I thought the Winchester
loads were cleaner than the others.
A ball powder, it metered very
well through my RCBS Chargemaster Lite, which threw every charge
in the test. I also threw 10 charges
of 5.1 grains (0.1 grain under max)
through my ancient Lee volumetric
measure. Six were 5.1 grains, two
were 5.0 grains and two were 5.2
grains. That’s good enough for me.
I’m not sure whether Winchester
244 will be my trail load. It shot
well, with the exception of that
outlier with the 4.8-grain charge,
but I’m looking for more velocity.
However, with its excellent metering, I think 244 is going to be my
go-to powder for .38 Special practice loads with Hornady 125-grain
XTPs. I’ll report back on that in a
future issue
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