WINCHESTER WINCLEAN 244

Winchester Smokeless Propellants, a brand licensed to Hodgdon Powder Co., introduced the new WinClean 244 double-based handgun powder in 2018, announcing that it was developed for medium handgun loads. It falls into what I think of as the fast end of a medium burn rate pistol powder, ranked at position No. 31 on Hodgdon’s burn rate chart. W244 is a little slower than W231 (ranked 29) and a little faster than Winchester Super Field (ranked 38). It’s right next to Alliant Unique (ranked 32).

WINCHESTER WINCLEAN 244

Like W231, W244 has small flakes, and I found it to meter smoothly and consistently from my RCBS Uniflow powder dispenser. W244 has the WinClean additive to burn clean and reduce copper fouling. Winchester says the powder has low flash and is ideally suited for handloading 9mm Luger, .38 Special, and .45 ACP.

WINCHESTER WINCLEAN 244

Accuracy was comparable to what my guns usually shoot. Accuracy with most 9mm loads and with all the .45 ACP loads was better than average for my guns, suggesting that W244 has real potential in handloads used for shooting matches.