Throughout the 75 years the company has been in business, the innovations have kept coming.
The innovations of the Hodgdon Powder Co. started in 1947 with the novel idea that founder Bruce Hodgdon had for purchasing large quantities of surplus military powder, repackaging it, and selling it to hobbyist handloaders. Throughout the 75 years the company has been in business, the innovations have kept coming.
For example, early on Hodgdon Powder Co. provided load recipes to go along with the surplus powder the company sold. By 1960, when it first started selling newly manufactured powder instead of military-purchase powder, Hodgdon was using expensive pressure-testing equipment, including pressure barrels and chronographs, to provide safe load data. According to longtime Hodgdon ballistician Ron Reiber, who retired in 2020, to this day, the Hodgdon laboratory makes sure the company has safe and reliable data for every propellant it sells, for all the popular—and not so popular—cartridges available.
As alluded to in the previous article, “A History of Achievement,” Hodgdon changed the muzzleloading world forever in 1976 with the introduction of the first black powder substitute called Pyrodex. Pyrodex was invented by Dan Pawlak and Mike Levenson. Pawlak, according to Bob Hodgdon, was one of the most brilliant people he had ever met, but he was still a boy at heart and loved anything that went bang. Levenson was a chemist by training, and together he and Pawlak created the pyrotechnic deflagrating explosive they called Pyrodex.
One of Pyrodex’s characteristics is that when compared to the velocities and pressures of black powder, equal volume charges of Pyrodex and FFFg Gearhart-Owen black powder gave velocities of 1,800 fps to 1,850 fps, and an oscilloscope showed pressures of about 5,000 psi for Pyrodex and 6,000 psi for the black powder. Along with that analysis, in a lead crusher pressure-measuring system, both propellants would show about 6,000 l.u.p. because the Pyrodex pressure-time trace was lower but wider, giving a substantially equal area under the pressure curve. What all that means is that Pyrodex will give lower pressure and velocity after the first shot, while black powder will give higher pressure and velocity after the first shot. Because of black powder’s nature of fouling, subsequent shots with black powder will continue to climb in pressure and then become erratic until the point where the projectile cannot be seated is reached and the fouling must be cleaned out. Additionally, Pyrodex was much cleaner shooting, and Pawlak and other testers shot muzzleloaders with Pyrodex all day, all week, and actually left firearms uncleaned for 30 to 60 days without any damaging results.
Clays & Varget
Another extremely innovative propellant was introduced in 1991. Called Clays, this smokeless powder is for shotshells, and it was developed by Hodgdon’s Australian powder producer, Australian Defense Industries (ADI). Again according to Reiber, Clays was developed to be super-clean burning when other shotshell propellants were notoriously not clean burning. Most other powders were single-base, and ADI was experimenting with a process to apply nitroglycerine to give the powder more energy. It also would make the powder more impervious to moisture, light more easily, and burn super-clean. Clays turned out to be quieter (less muzzle blast) with less recoil. The new powder really took off and became Hodgdon’s most successful product launch.
In 1995 Hodgdon introduced Varget, the first rifle powder in the company’s Extreme extruded line. The powder description in this Annual Manual states, “The first of Hodgdon’s revolutionary Extreme extruded powders, Varget features small extruded grains for uniform metering, insensitivity to hot/cold temperatures and higher energy for improved velocities over other powders in its burning-speed class. Easy ignition and clean burning are other features that translate into superb accuracy; higher scores; and more clean, one-shot kills. Outstanding performance and velocity can be obtained in such popular cartridges as the 223 Remington, 22-250 Remington, 308 Winchester, 30-06, 375 H&H, and many more.”
Extreme Powders, Pellets & Manuals
Subsequent Hodgdon Extreme extruded rifle powders have won more benchrest matches and taken more big game than any other propellant. This family of powders covers every rifle cartridge from the 204 Ruger to the .50-caliber BMG, and all produce very low extreme spreads in velocity and pressure.
In 1996 Hodgdon released Pyrodex Pellets to the world. Combining the proven qualities of loose Pyrodex with the ease of loading that a solid-form pellet provided, Pyrodex Pellets were first offered in 50 grains and sized for .50-caliber muzzleloaders. Since their introduction, Pyrodex Pellets also have been offered in 30-grain weights for use in .44-caliber and .45-caliber cap-and-ball revolvers and .45-caliber muzzleloading rifles.
In 2001 Hodgdon returned to the field of black powder substitutes with the introduction of TripleSeven. Essentially Pyrodex without the sulfur, TripleSeven is cleaner and more powerful. First available as a loose propellant, it was later offered in pellet form. TripleSeven black powder substitute also is used as the basis for the star-shaped FireStar muzzleloader pellet (introduced in 2019). The unique-shaped propellant drives bullets faster, leaves less residue, and provides improved accuracy.
While this next product is not a propellant, it is still truly innovative. Beginning in 2003, Hodgdon started producing an annual newsstand publication called the Annual Manual. It was innovative at the time because it not only included tons of updated reloading data, but also featured in-depth reloading articles on the latest, most interesting new cartridge introductions. These articles were (and still are) written by the most knowledgeable and popular writers in the industry. It remains an incredibly valuable resource for handloading tips and techniques as well as a vehicle to announce the most recent developments from Hodgdon. And there are plenty of loyal customers who now collect each and every Hodgdon Annual Manual that’s produced. It has become a collectible.
Trail Boss, CFE & Enduron
Back to innovative propellants. In 2005, under the IMR brand, Hodgdon introduced Trail Boss primarily for Cowboy Action shooters. In this sport, muzzle velocities are held to under 1,000 fps, and that often requires reduced loads. In some revolver cartridges, reduced loads with standard smokeless powders can be dangerous because of an increase in air space within a cartridge case. These shooters needed a propellant that was bulky enough to take up the space in the case without increasing velocity and pressure.
Trail Boss is based on a whole new technology that allows very high loading density, good flow through powder measures, and stability in severe temperature variations. Its characteristics include being too bulky to double charge and too bulky to surpass maximum pressures. Now wearing the Hodgdon brand, Trail Boss is primarily a handgun powder, but it has some application in rifles. Most importantly, it provides improved safety to the handloader.
In 2012 Hodgdon unveiled its CFE 223 (Copper Fouling Eraser) powder that removes copper bullet jacket fouling from the bore as you shoot. This technology was subsequently applied to CFE Pistol powder and CFE BLK powder. CFE 223 is described as a spherical propellant that incorporates chemical ingredients that retard jacket fouling, allowing shooters to shoot more and clean less. As many handloaders have discovered, it actually removes copper fouling, too.
CFE 223 is great for cartridges ranging from the 204 Ruger through the 223 Remington and the 22-250 Remington to the 308 Winchester. CFE BLK is intended for the 300 AAC Blackout as well as small-capacity rifle cartridges like 17 Hornet, 218 Bee, and 221 Fireball. It also is excellent for the 6.8 Remington SPC and the 7.62x39mm Russian. CFE Pistol (introduced in 2014) is designed for match loads as well as defense loads in 9mm Luger, 38 Super, 40 S&W, and 45 ACP.
Also introduced in 2014, IMR Enduron rifle powders are double-base propellants, the first IMR double-base powders in fact. That means they contain nitroglycerine. Adding nitroglycerine increases the energy value. In other words, when the exact same charge weight of two propellants that are otherwise identical are fired, the nitro-filled propellant will deliver higher velocities.
What’s more, the Enduron powders are totally friendly to birds, bees, trees, and condors. And there is an additive that reduces copper fouling deposited in rifle bores. Additionally, these powders are insensitive to changes in temperature. Again, all components of the Enduron powders are environmentally friendly. Many of Hodgdon’s powders have established performance benchmarks by which other powders have since been compared. The IMR Enduron powders set the bar even higher.
Winchester StaBALL 6.5
The latest technological innovation from Hodgdon is Winchester StaBALL 6.5 rifle powder. Not until StaBALL 6.5 had a BALL powder been temperature insensitive. StaBALL 6.5 is stable in all conditions, hot or cold. It provides a case fill/loading density from 93 percent to 100 percent in all cartridges appropriate for its burn speed.
Top performance is achieved in 6 Creedmoor, 6.5 Creedmoor, 270 Winchester, 7mm-08 Remington, 375 H&H, and many more. StaBALL 6.5 meters precisely and provides speeds that are from 30 fps to 200 fps faster than all powders in its burn speed class. Plus, it has a copper-fouling-reducing additive. Stability, precision, and speed make it a top performer for long-range competitive shooters and hunters at all ranges and in all conditions.
As writer Steve Gash stated in his article introducing StaBALL 6.5 to readers, “What sets StaBALL 6.5 apart is that it incorporates several highly desirable features in one propellant. StaBALL 6.5 has the uniform metering of other spherical powders, the chemical ingredients that retard copper fouling, and temperature insensitivity. This is the first BALL powder to include all these qualities. Another great feature of StaBALL 6.5 is that it produces velocities a bit higher and standard deviations a bit lower than most other powders, contributing to pinpoint accuracy.”
Obviously, Hodgdon Powder Co. has been at the forefront of innovation the entire length of its 75 years in business. It probably would have been easier and perhaps successful enough to sit back and coast on its previous achievements. But that’s not the way company founder Bruce Hodgdon operated. It’s not the way his sons J.B. and Bob Hodgdon operate, and it’s not the way the company operates.
Obviously, Hodgdon Powder Co. has been at the forefront of innovation the entire length of its 75 years in business.