Anyone loading x-metal 125gn 9mm bullets?

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john92awd

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I loaded up a bunch at 1.125 oal. They cycle and plunk fine in a glock 17 but way too long for a cz chamber.
I tried to go down to 1.100 oal and they still were too long...
Anyone loaded up these bullets for a cz?
How short is too short?
(Loading 4.0 titegroup for ipsc minor)
 
It all depends on the bullet profile. The OAL could vary from 1.060 to 1.125.

I load Campro 124 Gn HP with 4.0 gn titegroup to 1.095 for my 2 CZ 75 SP01's. The Campro data says to load from 4.1 to 4.4 gn with OAL 1.090
 
I have been loading for the cz for about 2 years now. I have found that they require a shorter oal. I haven't seen one yet that 1.100 oal wouldn't fit. I think I may try to reduce it below 1.100 until it Chambers, I'm just worried about the pressure.
Perhaps I will try 3.8gn titegroup with the shorter oal and borrow a chronograph to ensure I have ever enough velocity
 
I would have thought 1.100 would have fit a shadow with the xmetal 125's.
I got a batch of 125's and 147's to test after a club bought some steel from them, and loaded the 125's 1.14 and the 147's 1.12 and they were fine in my CZ Shadowline and Shadow 2 (and glock, sig, etc) to test. I normally load 147's to 1.11 now to be 'safe'.
 
Well, I picked up a box of X-Metal 125gr pills to try out and just started to make up some test loads. With Campros, Berrys and Calibers, I normally seat to 1.10 OAL. As John92 found out, the 125gr profile is a bit stocky so the OGIVE is a lot higher. I had to seat them to 1.07" COAL. At this COAL, they will pass the plunk test with my Shadow2, 92FS, 226 and 1911 but they won't plunk in my LoneWolf 40-9 conversion barrel. To seat in my LoneWolf barrel, I have to set the COAL at 1.06".

So I set my seating and crimping dies for the Shadow 2 for now and that's when things start to get interesting. I crank out 10rnds and try to plunk test them, expecting them to pass without any issue. First three pass, got to the 4th and it's a bit snug, tried a few more and out of the 10, 4 of them do not fall out of the barrel which had me scratching my head. Checked my dies and shell plate (LNL AP) and they're all snugged up. I measure the COALs and the ones that pass are 1.072" to 1.073". The ones that fail are 1.077" to 1.079". I'm thinking I'm doing something majorly wrong so I grab a bullet and reset my seating die and reset it to 1.70" and crank out five rounds. Tested them and 2 don't pass the plunk test.

I measure the COAL and I'm getting anywhere from 1.070" to 1.079" like earlier BUT one of the 1.078" ones pass the plunk test. WTF? So I measure the COAL of the first 10rnds and sure enough, there are a couple 1.078" ones that pass the plunk test and a few of the 1.070" ones that JUST plunk in my LoneWolf barrel.

I decided to weigh 20 pills and they range anywhere from 122.5gr to 124.9gr with a majory in the 123.x gr range. Grabbed another dozen and not one weighed in at 125gr. They're all over the place with weight.

I'm not sure if I just got a bad box but with this much inconsistencies, let's just say I won't be buying these X-Metal pills anymore. I should've spent the extra $5 for my usual Campros.
 
Trinimon said:
Well, I picked up a box of X-Metal 125gr pills to try out and just started to make up some test loads. With Campros, Berrys and Calibers, I normally seat to 1.10 OAL. As John92 found out, the 125gr profile is a bit stocky so the OGIVE is a lot higher. I had to seat them to 1.07" COAL. At this COAL, they will pass the plunk test with my Shadow2, 92FS, 226 and 1911 but they won't plunk in my LoneWolf 40-9 conversion barrel. To seat in my LoneWolf barrel, I have to set the COAL at 1.06".

So I set my seating and crimping dies for the Shadow 2 for now and that's when things start to get interesting. I crank out 10rnds and try to plunk test them, expecting them to pass without any issue. First three pass, got to the 4th and it's a bit snug, tried a few more and out of the 10, 4 of them do not fall out of the barrel which had me scratching my head. Checked my dies and shell plate (LNL AP) and they're all snugged up. I measure the COALs and the ones that pass are 1.072" to 1.073". The ones that fail are 1.077" to 1.079". I'm thinking I'm doing something majorly wrong so I grab a bullet and reset my seating die and reset it to 1.70" and crank out five rounds. Tested them and 2 don't pass the plunk test.

I measure the COAL and I'm getting anywhere from 1.070" to 1.079" like earlier BUT one of the 1.078" ones pass the plunk test. WTF? So I measure the COAL of the first 10rnds and sure enough, there are a couple 1.078" ones that pass the plunk test and a few of the 1.070" ones that JUST plunk in my LoneWolf barrel.

I decided to weigh 20 pills and they range anywhere from 122.5gr to 124.9gr with a majory in the 123.x gr range. Grabbed another dozen and not one weighed in at 125gr. They're all over the place with weight.

I'm not sure if I just got a bad box but with this much inconsistencies, let's just say I won't be buying these X-Metal pills anymore. I should've spent the extra $5 for my usual Campros.
Click to expand...

All bad like that. Bullet weight and length are all over the place.

I load them with 5.8-6.0gr of HS6 at OAL between 1.060 and 1.070 for my CZ SP01-Shadow. They cycle through shadow sig p226 and M&P9. There is no way to obtain a consistent OAL with these bullets due to their varying shape. And due to their pointy head, they hit the rifling of the cz unless they're very short, at 1.070 max.

Going back to campro when I'm done with that batch.

The 45 aren't as bad. Cycle fine through a 1911.
 
I just ended up loading mine short (1.07) and I use them as practice ammo only.
I still have a couple hundred loaded up that will only chamber in my stock glock. Stupid move by me loading so many without checking
 
It's unfortunate but good to know I'm not the only one who had this problem. I thought I was losing my frack'n mind yesterday loading these up. Another thing I discovered with these pills is that they're a b!tch to try and pull with an inertia hammer. I laid 10 solid strikes on that hammer and the bullet barely moved. With my plated bullets, they would have separated by the 4th-5th strike.

How did you guys find the accuracy? I'm glad I decided to make up some "puff" loads first.
 
Well, I had a bit of spare time today so I weighed out my box of X-Metal 125gr pills and seperated them based on weight.

Here's a pic of 2/3 of the bag of bullets. There was another 10 or so in the 125gr or heavier (barely), a few more 123gr, about 4 more 122gr and the majority 124gr. Not sure how much 3gr variance would affect accuracy but I'll find out next range session.

34109133426_0fd7aaa662_b.jpg
 
that's a bit of variance with the bullets. when I was sent "test" bullets when they first came out, there wasn't even a +/- 1 grain difference in what I was sent.
honestly I don't imagine it would make much difference inside of 25 metres, but it would be a good test to find out at least.. assuming your powder throw is very accurate, and using the same brass / primers.
I haven't weighed factory bullets in a long time, I just keep 147 grain bullets around the 890-900fps mark so i'm well above minor power factor in ipsc.
 
SoylentD said:
that's a bit of variance with the bullets. when I was sent "test" bullets when they first came out, there wasn't even a +/- 1 grain difference in what I was sent.
honestly I don't imagine it would make much difference inside of 25 metres, but it would be a good test to find out at least.. assuming your powder throw is very accurate, and using the same brass / primers.
I haven't weighed factory bullets in a long time, I just keep 147 grain bullets around the 890-900fps mark so i'm well above minor power factor in ipsc.
Click to expand...

I normally don't weigh pistol bullets but this batch I did, only because I was getting up to 8 thou in seating variance and thought I was either losing my head or my press was flaking out.
 
Trinimon said:
I normally don't weigh pistol bullets but this batch I did, only because I was getting up to 8 thou in seating variance and thought I was either losing my head or my press was flaking out.
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Did you try measuring them? For example, take the ones that are actually 124gr, and measure their length with a caliper. I measured mine, and the length were all over the place. So for the same OAL, the volume will change, which makes the inside pressure change, all else being equal. This is due to their irregular shape.

Now add that to varying OAL (I believe the OAL varies a lot because their have a pointy head while the seater of the die is more for round nose, so they don't seat so precisely), and case volume can change a lot. Not enough to be dangerous imho, but enough to impact accuracy.

When I bought these bullets, I also bought 2 boxes of reloaded x-metal ammos. The ammos were labeled 124gr and the bullets 125gr. The ammos were 1.150'' OAL and functionned correctly in my Shadow. If I load ammos with the 125gr bullets, I need 1.06 to 1.07'' for the ammos to function in my shadow. Otherwise they get stuck in the rifling and don't chamber properly. Looking at the ammos, the head of the bullets are different, even to the naked eye. So either they don't use the same bullets to reload their own ammos, or they changed their mold and made 2 batches with 2 different shapes.

Whcih powder/charge do you use with these? I tried HS-6 but didn't like it, I'll probably try titegroup next.
 
VinnyQC said:
Did you try measuring them? For example, take the ones that are actually 124gr, and measure their length with a caliper. I measured mine, and the length were all over the place. So for the same OAL, the volume will change, which makes the inside pressure change, all else being equal. This is due to their irregular shape.

Now add that to varying OAL (I believe the OAL varies a lot because their have a pointy head while the seater of the die is more for round nose, so they don't seat so precisely), and case volume can change a lot. Not enough to be dangerous imho, but enough to impact accuracy.

When I bought these bullets, I also bought 2 boxes of reloaded x-metal ammos. The ammos were labeled 124gr and the bullets 125gr. The ammos were 1.150'' OAL and functionned correctly in my Shadow. If I load ammos with the 125gr bullets, I need 1.06 to 1.07'' for the ammos to function in my shadow. Otherwise they get stuck in the rifling and don't chamber properly. Looking at the ammos, the head of the bullets are different, even to the naked eye. So either they don't use the same bullets to reload their own ammos, or they changed their mold and made 2 batches with 2 different shapes.

Whcih powder/charge do you use with these? I tried HS-6 but didn't like it, I'll probably try titegroup next.
Click to expand...

I looked at their website and they do have a 124gr with a more pointed profile which is probably what's in your reloaded box. The 125gr is less pointy. Too bad they didn't have 124gr where I bought 'em 'cause I would have stuck to 124gr but I'd probably run into the same crappy situation with bullet weights. I'll run a few on my OGIVE length checker on my caliper and see.

So far, I've loaded up 50rnds with 3.8gr Titegroup and 50 with 3.5gr Titegroup to see how they shoot from different pistols. I'll reload a special batch for my LoneWolf barrel which needs these pills seated 1/100" deeper.

I'm surprised nobody posted these variance issues with X-Metal pills earlier. Had I seen this mentioned, I'd have avoided 'em.
 
Trinimon said:
I looked at their website and they do have a 124gr with a more pointed profile which is probably what's in your reloaded box. The 125gr is less pointy. Too bad they didn't have 124gr where I bought 'em 'cause I would have stuck to 124gr but I'd probably run into the same crappy situation with bullet weights. I'll run a few on my OGIVE length checker on my caliper and see.

So far, I've loaded up 50rnds with 3.8gr Titegroup and 50 with 3.5gr Titegroup to see how they shoot from different pistols. I'll reload a special batch for my LoneWolf barrel which needs these pills seated 1/100" deeper.

I'm surprised nobody posted these variance issues with X-Metal pills earlier. Had I seen this mentioned, I'd have avoided 'em.
Click to expand...

What's your OAL on those 3.5/3.8 grains? And how do they perform? Hodgdon's data for titegroup is 3.6-4.0grains at 1.125'' for LCN, and 4.1-4.4gr at 1.090'' for FMJ. I'd be tempted to use the LCN datas (as it's cast bullet), but 1.125'' will never fit into a CZ, and reducing OAL by 0.065'' from published datas seems kind of a lot.
 
They sound like the HS bullets I got in USA. I had to load to 1.060" to plunk in my Cz.

New bullets I got from blue bullets jam at 1.165" plunk perfectly at 1.160", but I load to 1.125"
 
VinnyQC said:
What's your OAL on those 3.5/3.8 grains? And how do they perform? Hodgdon's data for titegroup is 3.6-4.0grains at 1.125'' for LCN, and 4.1-4.4gr at 1.090'' for FMJ. I'd be tempted to use the LCN datas (as it's cast bullet), but 1.125'' will never fit into a CZ, and reducing OAL by 0.065'' from published datas seems kind of a lot.
Click to expand...

Haven't shot 'em as yet. According to X-Metal's site, you're supposed to load them like cast pills.

I read your post about having to seat them deeper so I started off with a lighter load instead of my usual 4.2gr Titegroup behind a 124gr plated or FMJ or I would have been hammering like a madman trying to pull those loads.
 
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