Hodgdon Extreme
Hodgdon H50BMG
A clean-burning extruded powder developed specifically for the 50 BMG cartridge and long-range shooting with it.
A single-purpose powder built for the .50 BMG, sharing Varget's thermal-stability technology and delivering very tight velocity and pressure consistency in that cartridge. That is the whole story and it is a good one — long-range .50 shooters have little reason to look elsewhere. In anything smaller it simply will not burn out, and there is no sensible general-purpose use for it.
- 50 BMG
- long-range 50 BMG match loads
Who has Hodgdon H50BMG today
Checked October 10In stock at 2 stores — lowest in hand $57.80/lb (8 lb at Hodgdon (direct))
| Store | Size | Shelf | In hand /lb | Stock |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hodgdon (direct)Terms not published | 8 lb | $430.99 | $57.80 est. | In stock ↗ |
| Lohman ArmsHazmat charged, amount not published | 1 lb | $55.06 | $86.50 est. | In stock ↗ |
| Hodgdon (direct)Terms not published | 1 lb | $62.99 | $94.43 est. | In stock ↗ |
| Bruno Shooters Supply$26.95 hazmat + $19.95 ship | 8 lb | $368.99 | $51.99 | Out |
| Lohman ArmsHazmat charged, amount not published | 8 lb | $393.41 | $53.11 est. | Out |
“In hand” is the shelf price plus that store’s hazmat fee and shipping, spread over one container. Stock is checked once a day — confirm on the store’s page before ordering. Compare all powders →
Specifications
| Manufacturer | Hodgdon |
|---|---|
| Product family | Hodgdon Extreme |
| Status | Currently produced |
| Application | rifle |
| Grain form | extruded |
| Lee VMD (bulk density) | 0.0694 cc per grain · 0.93 g/cc |
| Composition | single-base |
| Temperature stable | Yes — claimed by the manufacturer |
| Burn-rate position | 194 of 198 (fastest = 1) — what this means |
| Typical cartridges | 50 BMG |
Grain shape
Large extruded grains with a thick web — that wall thickness is exactly why it takes a case this big to burn completely. Coarse grains meter poorly by volume, which is irrelevant here because nobody throws charges for this cartridge anyway.
Why geometry decides burn rate more than chemistry does: Shape Is the Product.
Shares Varget's thermal-stability technology; Hodgdon reports very low extreme spreads in velocity and pressure. A dedicated large-case powder.
Burn rate
Among the slowest powders charted, near Ramshot LRT and Alliant Reloder 50.
Chart agreement: consistent across charts - listed in the same relative neighbourhood by every publisher that carries it Ranked by: Hodgdon, Vihtavuori, Shooters World, Wolfe/LoadData.
Powders charted near it — neighbours on the chart are not substitutes, and adjacency tells you nothing about what charge either one takes:
- Vihtavuori N570 (position 191)
- Alliant Reloder 33 (position 192)
- Vihtavuori 24N41 (position 193)
- Hodgdon US 869 (position 195)
- Shooters World SW 50BMG (position 196)
- Alliant Reloder 50 (position 197)
Sources
The specifications above come from Hodgdon's own published documentation, linked below. The two “RCM's read” sections are ours, not theirs — our assessment of what this powder is like to load, drawn from its published characteristics and from what handloaders consistently report. No manufacturer endorses them and no source below backs them. If you think we have one wrong, tell us — we would rather fix it.