Winchester
Winchester WinClean 244
A medium handgun powder covering the same standard-pressure target and general-purpose ground as Winchester 231, with a cleaner-burning additive package.
Official Winchester load data →
Specifications
| Manufacturer | Winchester |
|---|---|
| Product family | Winchester |
| Status | Currently produced |
| Application | pistol |
| Grain form | spherical |
| Composition | double-base |
| Temperature stable | Not marketed as temperature-stable |
| Flash suppressant | Yes |
| Burn-rate position | 35 of 198 (fastest = 1) — what this means |
| Typical cartridges | 38 Special, 45 ACP, 9mm Luger |
Winchester canister propellants are spherical BALL POWDER products made in the USA; the round kernels meter precisely through volumetric powder measures. The WinClean additive is stated to burn cleaner and reduce copper fouling; Hodgdon flags the powder as an extra-clean-burn product. Sold both as Winchester 244 and as Winchester WinClean 244 - the same propellant.
Burn rate
Fast handgun speed, marginally slower than Winchester 231.
Chart agreement: consistent across the three charts that list it 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:
- Winchester 231 (position 32)
- Alliant 20/28 (position 33)
- Vihtavuori N32C Tin Star (position 34)
- Alliant Unique (position 36)
- Hodgdon Universal (position 37)
- Alliant Power Pistol (position 38)
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.
Win 244 gets modest, mixed reviews. The recurring specific complaint is that its copper-fouling-removal chemistry — the same family of additives as the CFE line — leaves guns visibly black over a range session.
- copper-eraser additive blamed for dirty burning
- functionally adequate for competition minor loads
- several users report switching away from it once they tried a cleaner alternative
Availability: Reported as findable but not a first choice; users describe working through existing stock rather than rebuying.
Consensus level: single report to commonly mentioned. Drawn from thread 1, thread 2.
Sources
Other Winchester 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.