Montana Gold vs. X-Treme

[tstuart34]

Other than cleaning the brass, what prep do you do?   

(I am wondering if I am missing something.)

Not  missing anything I deprime prior to wet tumbling. For several reasons I like having clean and shiny brass in the pockets and when you wet tumble you risk corroding the spent primers in place. Is it needed? No but I like the looks of like new brass. If I had a bullet finder it would speed things up when depriming single stage would be nice to have just to keep things simple. Its a added step I choose to take

[noylj]

If Xtreme bullets meet your needs, they are currently priced quite aggressively and would be a great buy. In other words, STOCK UP.
I stocked up on Montana Gold when their 9mm bullets were running about 7.5 cents/bullet. At 10-15 cents/bullet, I will simply go back to cast lead bullets.
If some one can convince me that they are actually getting the same accuracy at 50 yards with plated bullets as they can get with jacketed, I may go back and test a few plated bullets again.
I expect at some point, Montana Gold may find that their current high prices can not be sustained and prices will have to drop (unless copper/lead prices go up and all bullet prices go up).
If only PowerValley could get Zero bullets in stock at their current "pricing," I know where I would be ordering bullets.
Note: Roze Dist. does have some Zero bullets in stock.

[OnTheFly]

If Xtreme bullets meet your needs, they are currently priced quite aggressively and would be a great buy. In other words, STOCK UP.
I stocked up on Montana Gold when their 9mm bullets were running about 7.5 cents/bullet. At 10-15 cents/bullet, I will simply go back to cast lead bullets.
If some one can convince me that they are actually getting the same accuracy at 50 yards with plated bullets as they can get with jacketed, I may go back and test a few plated bullets again.
I expect at some point, Montana Gold may find that their current high prices can not be sustained and prices will have to drop (unless copper/lead prices go up and all bullet prices go up).
If only PowerValley could get Zero bullets in stock at their current "pricing," I know where I would be ordering bullets.
Note: Roze Dist. does have some Zero bullets in stock.

I have only shot the X-Treme out to 25 yards since that is typically the farthest I will shoot them.  I shot off of a rest with iron sights.  No spectacular grouping to report, but they did all hit well inside a paper plate.  Without putting the gun in a vice, that's as good as I can test them.  Though I'm betting the spread would have been quite small if you took me out of the equation.

Fly

[noylj]

8 cents vs. 10 cents per bullet. For me, the Montana bullets are worth it for the extra accuracy. If the Xtremes are comparable in your gun, the savings are well worth it.
I would also think that Xtreme, keeping their prices down near cast lead prices, may be a short term thing and stocking up might be a good idea (unless you think that all bullet prices are high due to temporary demand).

[OnTheFly]

I picked up some once fired 9mm brass that was military surplus with crimped primers.  I read that others were able to reload it without removing the crimp, so I thought I would try it.  Most primers went in easy, but a couple made quite the crunching noise when I seated it.  I had heard/felt this before, so NOW I know what was causing it.  Regardless, they all worked. 

During this trial, I realized that the soft(er) X-Treme bullet tips were being slightly deformed by my (seating?) die.  I don't remember seeing this before on my earlier reloads with these bullets.  Has anyone else experienced this?  Does it cause any issues with the accuracy of the bullet? Are the military surplus cases just more stout causing more resistance than standard factory cases?

Fly

[OnTheFly]

8 cents vs. 10 cents per bullet. For me, the Montana bullets are worth it for the extra accuracy. If the Xtremes are comparable in your gun, the savings are well worth it.
I would also think that Xtreme, keeping their prices down near cast lead prices, may be a short term thing and stocking up might be a good idea (unless you think that all bullet prices are high due to temporary demand).

I don't plan to shoot them out to 50 yards, but if you want 10 or 20 to reload and try out, I would be happy to give them to you.  Your test results would add some interesting data to this thread.  Since I don't have any baseline to test against, you would be better qualified to say if the X-Treme performed as well at this distance.

Fly