Hodgdon
Hodgdon HP-38
A low- to mid-range target handgun powder.
Specifications
| Manufacturer | Hodgdon |
|---|---|
| Product family | Hodgdon |
| Status | Currently produced |
| Application | pistol |
| Grain form | spherical |
| Composition | double-base |
| Temperature stable | Not marketed as temperature-stable |
| Burn-rate position | 31 of 198 (fastest = 1) — what this means |
| Typical cartridges | 38 Special, 44 Special, 45 ACP |
Spherical, so it meters cleanly through progressive measures. Hodgdon describes it as high energy at economical charge weights, meaning low charges in large cases — worth verifying thrown charges.
Burn rate
Fast pistol, sitting immediately beside Winchester 231 on Hodgdon's chart.
Chart agreement: consistent; note Wolfe/LoadData explicitly flags Hodgdon HP-38 and Winchester 231 as the same powder under two labels, and both Hodgdon and Vihtavuori rank them adjacently. Ranked by: Hodgdon, Vihtavuori, 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 N320 (position 28)
- Accurate No. 2 (position 29)
- Ramshot Zip (position 30)
- Winchester 231 (position 32)
- Alliant 20/28 (position 33)
- Vihtavuori N32C Tin Star (position 34)
What reloaders say about it
Unverified community anecdote. The following is a summary of what handloaders report in public forums. It is not manufacturer information, it has not been tested, it may be wrong, and it contains no load data by design. Treat it as colour, not guidance.
The community treats HP-38 and W231 as the same product under two labels, sourced to a direct statement from the manufacturer and a recorded interview — the difference being brand licensing cost. This is one of the few equivalences r/reloading treats as settled rather than rumor.
- treated as the same powder under two brand names
- practical benefit is doubling your shelf options when hunting for powder
- published data from different manuals may still differ slightly, which users attribute to lot variation
Availability: Reported as generally available; one of the two labels is often on the shelf when the other is not.
Reported cautions:
- Users specifically caution that very old load data may predate the products converging, so vintage data should not be cross-applied.
- Even for a manufacturer-confirmed equivalence, users note published data from different sources still differs — a reminder to use data for the powder in front of you.
Consensus level: widely held. Drawn from thread 1.
Sources
Other Hodgdon powders
Verify the charge, not just the recipe
Good data gets you a safe starting point. It does not tell you what actually went into the case on stroke 340 — a bridged measure, a double charge, a squib. That is what an RCM Laser Powder Check is for.