TESTED: Winchester WinClean 244

We love trying out new powders! This time we’re testing Winchester’s WinClean 244. This is a great general purpose pistol powder with an integrated copper fouling reduction agent. Watch and read on as we cover multiple pistol cartridges and scenarios, compare it to other powders, take a look at burn rate, and more.

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About Winchester WinClean 244

This powder has a copper-reduction agent and as a ball powder is ideal for use with a progressive press.

It is ideal for medium handgun loads in cartridges like .38 Special, .45 Auto, 9mm, and more. It has a burn rate close to Win 231 with low flash characteristics.

From Hodgdon:

Winchester WinClean 244 is a ball powder developed for medium handgun loads. It is ideally suited to 38 Special, 45 Auto, and 9mm standard loads. Consistency, low flash, and a broad range of applications make this powder a choice for any handgun cartridge loader. Since it is a ball powder, it features precise metering. And with the WinClean additive, this powder is cleaner burning and reduces copper fouling.

Made in the USA.

Available in 1 lb., 4 lb. containers.

Taking a closer look at burn rate, WinClean 244 is faster than CFE Pistol and comparable to Win 231.

I’ve actually used the same charge weights with 231 for 9mm, .38 Special, .44 Special, and .45 ACP. This shows how versatile powders in this burn rate can be!

I compared WinClean 244 under the microscope to three other powders, CFE Pistol, Trail Boss, and Varget. The flattened balls were very similar to CFE Pistol, but smaller.

Reloading and Results

I recently used WinClean 244 for the first time to load .38 Special on the RCBS Progressive Pro Chucker 7.

I combined this powder with Berry’s .38/.357 125 Grain Flat Point-Thick Plate Bullets, .357 Magnum brass, and small pistol primers, using load data from Hodgdon’s Online Reloading Data Center.

I used a powder charge between minimum and maximum and it was very pleasurable to shoot.

Wanting to see what performance I could get out of a maximum 9mm load, I loaded 4.5 grains of WinClean 244 under a Berry’s 9mm 124 Grain HBRN-TP bullet.

I’ve used this particular bullet in a number of loads and have always been very happy with the results!

I first fired this load from my Beretta 92FS over the Athlon Rangecraft Velocity PRO Radar Chronograph. The average velocity was 1101.8 fps with an 11 fps SD.

Next I fired it through my CMMG Banshee PCC with a suppressor with a supersonic 1,252.7 fps average velocity and 51.2 fps SD.

Conclusion

I was very happy with how WinClean 244 performed, particularly in my handguns.

It burned very clean with very little smoke and is incredibly versatile. I may look into reducing my 9mm load to make it subsonic with the PCC and investigate the results.