A few years ago I was looking for a cheaper alternative to jacketed projectiles. I tried lead ammo for a while and I could never get good loads that did not lead up the barrel of my guns at least a little bit. I was tired of needing to spend a long amount of time on every barrel after shooting so I decided to try the copper plated projectiles from Xtreme Bullets.
So far I have loaded and shot them out of my 45, 40, 10MM and 380 and now use them exclusively in my 45ACP, 40 and 380. The only reason I do not use them in my 10MM exclusively is that I have been pushing the velocity in that round and I shoot more 9X25 Dillon than anything else in my Glock 20. If I shot 10MM more I would make the switch but I have enough projectiles hanging around from other tests that I still need to burn through.
The weight of each projectile in the boxes I have purchased was consistent – I just sampled a percentage. I did not run through every one of them. There were some variances but nothing extreme. No show stopping 10-20 Grain differences.
Of the couple thousand I have loaded I have yet to find a true defect bullet. Their quality control is excellent. Every bullet has a mirror finish with no big dings or dents, just the normal little nicks that occur with packaging and shipping. In the past I have found that a small amount of every company’s projectiles will have some nicks and small defects from bouncing around and shipping.
The polished finished allows for smooth reloading, and if your using a bullet feeding allows for them to flow more easily through the feeder. If you’re not using a feeder it still allows them to seat very easily without the “pop” some bullets have when they first slide into a tighter case.
The copper plated bullets can be loaded to mid-range jacketed bullet velocities and per the Xtreme Bullets website – “We recommend keeping velocities to less than 1500 FPS (Feet Per Second) and using only a light taper crimp”. I have just been checking my load books and going with loads in the 1300-1400FPS range and have not had any issues with feeding, cycling or shooting.
For the plinking and steel target shooting I am using the projectiles for they work great. They are accurate and on paper they hold a good group. I am sure if I sat down and did some load development I could tighten that group way up. I just don’t see a need since most of my shooting is at steel and they are accurate enough with the midrange loads I use now.
I will be buying more in the future, and when I do someday get around to experiments with different powders I expect to bring the groups on paper down in size – even though they are currently acceptable for my uses. They are well made, decently priced and accurate – I cannot ask for more out of a product.
www.xtremebullets.com