X-Treme Bullets first impression

[RandyP]

My first time customer order (free shipping as a result) arrived via UPS this afternoon.

500 count boxes - packed two per carton - of .380, 9mm, 38 Special and .45ACP.

To say I am IMPRESSED is an understatement. The plated bullets shine like fine jewelry and if they shoot half as great as they look I will be more than satisfied.

For the past 7 years I have exclusively reloaded Berry's and Ranier plated, and they ARE fine, but for price and quality I think X-Treme has just won over someone who will become a loyal customer.

I'm sure I'm just 'late to the party' when it comes to these bullets, but for those on the fence, give them a try, you won't be disappointed.

 

[Xdm40rajuy]

My first time customer order (free shipping as a result) arrived via UPS this afternoon.

500 count boxes - packed two per carton - of .380, 9mm, 38 Special and .45ACP.

To say I am IMPRESSED is an understatement. The plated bullets shine like fine jewelry and if they shoot half as great as they look I will be more than satisfied.

For the past 7 years I have exclusively reloaded Berry's and Ranier plated, and they ARE fine, but for price and quality I think X-Treme has just won over someone who will become a loyal customer.

I'm sure I'm just 'late to the party' when it comes to these bullets, but for those on the fence, give them a try, you won't be disappointed.

I bought a Springfield Xd Mod 2 in 9mm back in april and was able to pick up 1000 of the X-treme plated bullets in 147 gr for $65. I started with Pistol Powder and found a decent load for it. I too am impressed witht the quality and accuracy of the bullet. Im sure you will also enjoy the accuracy! Happy Loading!

 

[Mobuck]

Looks aren't that important for me. I found the plated bullets to be just the thing for shooting steel. They "washer" when hitting the plates/swingers and don't rebound.

 

[Ka6otm]

I've been using X-Treme for around 4 or 5 years and they are excellent.

I also use Berry's and Frontier, and they're about the same quality, just not as shiny in some cases.

 

[Clovishound]

Yep, they are pretty bullets all right.

158 grain heavy plate hollow points in .357 magnum.

They only thing I don't care for is the lack of plated specific data. I know they say use max lead or mid jacketed. I find that with some powders it can be very confusing. Some powders have a gap between lead and jacketed. Some have jacketed max less than lead. I have also had some accuracy problems. I think the problem with that was that I was not pushing them fast enough. These were in the loads that had a big gap between max lead and jacketed start loads. When I find the right combo, these bullets do their job quite well. I don't have ready access to a chronograph. I think working up using a chrony would probably make things clearer.

The above pictured are .357 magnum loaded with near max Universal lead loads. They are very accurate.

 

[NikA]

The 2nd ed. Lee book has some data for plated bullets, so it must be out there somewhere. I'd wager that the thickness difference between plated bullet manufacturers is small enough to use the load data interchangeably when given for plated bullets of the same weight and similar design. I use X-Treme plated bullets in 9mm when I bother to load it and they seem to work with the data I found.

 

[G2]

Been using them for years, there plating is heavy and durable. Do yourself a favor and recover some shot bullets & inspect, you will be impressed.

FWIW, NEVER PAY FOR SHIPPING, they run free shipping & specials all the time.

In the old days, when you bought them right from the factory, the price you paid was SHIPPED!

There have been times where $5 gets the entire order shipped.

 

[Ka6otm]

The 2nd ed. Lee book has some data for plated bullets, so it must be out there somewhere. I'd wager that the thickness difference between plated bullet manufacturers is small enough to use the load data interchangeably when given for plated bullets of the same weight and similar design. I use X-Treme plated bullets in 9mm when I bother to load it and they seem to work with the data I found.

Here's what the X-Treme website has to say about loading data: http://www.xtremebullets.com/Bullet-Load-Info-s/1952.htm

Load Info

Our Copper Plated Bullets can be run at mid-range jacketed velocities or higher end lead velocities. We recommend keeping velocities to less than 1500 FPS (Feet Per Second) and using only a light taper crimp

 

[NikA]

My comment was addressed to Clovishound, who claimed to be unable to find data specific to plated bullets. Somebody must have developed it because Lee doesn't actually do much (if any) load development and there are probably 100+ plated bullet loads for 9mm alone in the 2nd ed. Lee loading manual. I don't know where it came from, presumably there is a plated bullet manufacturer that is making this data publicly available.

 

[powder smoke]

I also been using them for some time. I like them a lot
and quick shipping I usually order a couple thousand at a time. ps

 

[Clovishound]

Yes, there is some data available for plated bullets. I did not mean to imply there was none. There just isn't a lot of it out there. I have not been able to find any data for plated in .38 spcl or .357 magnum.

Fortunately, there does seem to be data available for 9mm plated. I rarely load for 9mm these days, but plated seems to be a good fit for 9mm. I have used some in the past and been very happy with the results.

 

[NikA]

The lack of data might tell us something about the number of individuals that have selected plated bullets as ideal in these cartridges.

Plated bullets are comparable but typically slightly more expensive than cast bullets. Shooting cast in low pressure revolvers has a pretty large following. Shooting cast in magnum revolvers has a somewhat smaller following, but the alternative is probably shooting quality jacketed bullets instead of plated bullets. This probably weights most use of plated bullets to semiauto handguns in high pressure cartridges (e.g., 9mm and .40S&W). Coincidentally, these are the applications I have found basic cast bullets to be insufficient for and am using plated bullets for until I get set up for powdercoating.

 

[contender]

I've been loading plated bullets for a long time. When I started, I needed a quantity of bullets at a lower price than jacketed, and yet w/o the smoke of cast & lubed bullets. My use is USPSA competition. Plated is perfectly suited for this. Lower velocities to where you don't worry about stripping off the plating, and no smoke associated with the lube on cast.
Lots of competition shooters use plated bullets.
Now that powder coating has taken off, some folks are switching around a bit,,,, but plated still enjoys a large following. Especially in the 9mm, 40 S&W, & 45 acp calibers.
And I've been using X-treme plated bullets for a long time as well.

 

[Jimbo357mag]

The Accurate website has lots of plated bullet data for 38 special and 38+P. There is not much in the 357 magnum section because the velocity is too much for plated bullets unless the load is reduced.

http://www.accuratepowder.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/WesternLoadGuide1-2016_Web.pdf

...also Rainier used to publish a lot of data but they don't do that anymore? I had several pages saved on my computer but when transferring to a new computer it became garbled. It looks like this now.

<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN">

<HTML><HEAD><TITLE>Accurate Arms</TITLE>
<META http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1">
<META content="MSHTML 6.00.2900.2668" name=GENERATOR></HEAD>
<BODY vLink=#ffffff link=#cccccc bgColor=#000060
background=loaddataAA_files/RainierTile.gif stylesrc="index.htm">
<DIV align=center>
<CENTER>
<TABLE border=0>
<TBODY>
<TR>
<TD vAlign=center align=middle width="100%"><BIG><BIG><BIG><FONT
face="Arial Black"
color=#7a4605>RainierBallistics</FONT></BIG></BIG></BIG><FONT
color=#ffffff><BR><U><STRONG><FONT face=Arial>Reloading <A
name=Data>Data</A></FONT></STRONG></U></FONT></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></CENTER></DIV>
<DIV align=center>
<CENTER>
<TABLE width=550 border=0>
<TBODY>
<TR>
<TD vAlign=center align=middle width="33%"><STRONG><FONT color=#7a4605
size=2>ACCURATE ARMS</FONT></STRONG></TD>
<TD vAlign=center align=middle width="33%"><STRONG><A
href="http://www.rainierballistics.com/loaddataVV.htm"><FONT color=#7a4605
size=2>VIHTAVUORI OY</FONT></A></STRONG></TD>
<TD vAlign=center align=middle width="33%"><STRONG><A
href="http://www.rainierballistics.com/loaddataMW.htm"><FONT color=#7a4605
size=2>MIDWAY</FONT></A></STRONG></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></CENTER></DIV>
<P align=center><STRONG><FONT color=#ffffff size=5><U>ACCURATE
ARMS</U></FONT></STRONG></P>
<DIV align=center>
<CENTER>
<TABLE width="100%" border=0>

 

[volshooter]

I really like the Extreme bullets, purdy, easy to load and shoot very well. The shinny is a real plus for me as I Flitz every case anyway. Shinny rounds are happy rounds and seem to just work better.
The guys know me for extra shinny cartridges..... it's kinda my thing.
These are extremely well made and priced right.