Hodgdon
Hodgdon Titegroup
A high-volume target and action-shooting handgun powder, widely used for Cowboy Action, Bullseye and practical pistol loads.
Specifications
| Manufacturer | Hodgdon |
|---|---|
| Product family | Hodgdon |
| Status | Currently produced |
| Application | pistol, shotshell |
| Grain form | spherical |
| Composition | double-base |
| Temperature stable | Not marketed as temperature-stable |
| Burn-rate position | 19 of 198 (fastest = 1) — what this means |
| Typical cartridges | 9mm Luger, 38 Special, 45 ACP, 45 Colt, 357 Magnum |
Hodgdon's key claims are position insensitivity — powder position in large cases such as 45 Colt and 357 Magnum has virtually no effect on results — plus reliable ignition with all primer types including lead-free, low charge weight, clean burning and mild report. Low charge weight in a big case means small metering errors are proportionally large, so charge checking matters.
Burn rate
Fast pistol, between Hodgdon High Gun and Alliant American Select.
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:
- Alliant Bullseye (position 16)
- Alliant Sport Pistol (position 17)
- Hodgdon High Gun (position 18)
- Alliant American Select (position 20)
- Accurate Solo 1000 (position 21)
- Alliant Green Dot (position 22)
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.
Titegroup is the community's cheap-and-cheerful pistol powder and it splits opinion sharply. Some users find it acceptably clean and use it by the keg; others find it dirty and less consistent through a measure than alternatives. It is also repeatedly flagged as a small-volume, dense powder — which is why several posters prefer a bulkier powder for double-charge visibility.
- cheap and widely available
- cleanliness is genuinely disputed — reports go both ways, often tied to how hard the load is run
- small charge volume in a large case; users raise double-charge detection as a concern
- described by one competition shooter as the antithesis of temperature stability
- metering consistency reported as merely acceptable, not excellent
Availability: Consistently reported as one of the easier pistol powders to actually find, and among the cheapest.
Reported cautions:
- A widely upvoted safety post warns specifically against using it in titanium revolver cylinders. Treat that as a community warning to check with the firearm manufacturer, not as guidance from us.
- Users caution that its low charge volume relative to case capacity makes visual double-charge detection harder than with bulkier powders.
Consensus level: widely held. Drawn from thread 1, thread 2, thread 3.
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.