Hornady XTP

[SmeeAgain]

I moved back in 2008 and somehow missed taking a huge truckload of "stuff" from my storage shed.
Somebody scored big!
Along with many other treasures was all of my reloading equipment.
I know... perfect timing right?
So back in 2016 when President Trump warned us to "be prepared" I took hid advice.
Along with other necessities, I replaced my reloading stuff.
This time I went with a single stage press... because I was concerned about breakage / parts availability when I might need it most.
I had RCBS stuff when I first started decades ago & was happy with it so I was doing that again.
Until the salesman at the store pointed out that the Hornady "kit" was on sale and they give away free bullets with each die set.
I mentioned that with the exception of one time, out of the more than a dozen "rebates" I've never gotten them. He said he got his.
Anyway the price alone was worth it so I got Hornady.
VERY happy with it BTW.
The press alone got me 500 .45 cal XTP bullets and they actually sent them. Fast too.
When the smoke cleared, I ended up with about 1,000 each of both .45 and 1,000 .357.
The quality is outstanding!
I might be the only guy on the planet who tested XTP bullets on the range.
I kept it to a minimum as my intent is only defensive ammo. But still... 2,000 bullets should last several lifetimes.
For range use, I use Berry's or my own cast bullets.
2,000 there is only one afternoon lol.
I'm still extremely impressed that Hornady held up their end of the deal.
I hope others cashed in on that. It made dies very affordable.

 

[barnfrog]

Wow. And I thought I made out pretty well when the previous owner of our house left the lawnmower and snowblower. A shed full of reloading gear and supplies sounds like the mother lode compared to that.

 

[Bearded Phil]

Good deal! And for what it's worth I've loaded and tested 100's of 158gr XTP's so you're definitely not alone there.

 

[Rule3]

All of Hornadys stuff is great. Warranty and CS is great. I "hoarded" all my XTPs
I only used them to test trying to match their SD loads which I carry.
I bought their LnL AP press and got the "free" bullets. (Nothing is free but a good promotional thing)

 

[AZAndy]

XTP is definitely one of my favorite bullets, along with the recently extremely rare Gold Dot. Never had any feeding problems in any chambering I've tried them in (which, come to think of it, is only two for semi-auto: .45 and 9mm Mak). I've been loading the 100 grain XTPs in .32 H&R lately, and the box says the recommended minimum velocity is 700fps. That makes me wonder about maybe trying some in .32 Long, since I'm pretty sure I can get them going at least that fast. Which reminds me, I really really need to whip up some ballistic gel simulacrum, as I've always wanted to to actually see what kind of expansion I can get from .32-- not a lot of tests of that bullet out there that I can find.

 

[BC17A]

I also ended up with a pile of the free XTPs when I bought all my reloading gear. Too bad they only offered the least popular weight bullets in most calibers. I tried to like the 185gn in 45 but kept going back to the 230s. The 155gn in 40 cal work well though.

 

[Fine Figure of a Man]

I kept it to a minimum as my intent is only defensive ammo. But still... 2,000 bullets should last several lifetimes.

If they don't you're living in a bad neighborhood.

 

[Jack B.]

XTP's are all I have other than plated bullets. For burning up range time . I shoot 38.caliber & 44cal. in pistol mostly and I am very happy with them. I even tried Nosler 30 cal. bullet's in a rife and switched to Hornady and accuracy picked up.

 

[Captcurt]

XTP's are my pick having used the 180gr in my GP100 357, 250gr in my 45LC and the 300gr in my Ruger inline. No complaints.

 

[Lennyjoe]

I use XTP’s in 9MM and .45 ACP for bulk ammo since they’re a good quality bullet and readily available

 

[WiTom]

I load up the XTP bullet for shooting out of my 44mag barrel, of my Desert Eagle. Boy, I would not want to be on the receiving end of that! What it does to 5gal bucket size ice is pretty telling.

 

[Rodfac]

Yep,,,the 158 gr XTP HP and the Flat Point version are two good bullets. Very accurate in all of my .357's.

Both are tough as nails and can be hard to get expansion unless you load them on the high end of the scale. Hornady claims they'll open up down to 800 fps or so...1000 fps muzzle velocity is better IMHO. The Flat Point version is my go-to for use in my Marlin 1894S...a good deer bullet that won't blow up on ribs when launched at ~ 1600+ fps muzzle vel.

For JHP's XTP's are pretty much all I shoot anymore...Sierras, Speers are harder to come by...even back in the good old days before the Chinese epidemic and the current morons in Washington took over.

YMMv, Rod

 

[Jonesy814]

When Wal-Mart was unloading all their handgun stuff I got a couple boxes of 185gr XTP's for 45 acp, for $10.00 per box, and one box of 125gr in 38 caliber for $8.50. I would have bought 5 times as many if they'd have had them for that price

 

[AJC1]

I use XTP’s in 9MM and .45 ACP for bulk ammo since they’re a good quality bullet and readily available

You may be interested in the hap. Supposed to be identical but no hp and a lot cheaper for target work. A big box sitting at my bps right now.

 

[Airborne Falcon]

I moved back in 2008 and somehow missed taking a huge truckload of "stuff" from my storage shed.
Somebody scored big!
Along with many other treasures was all of my reloading equipment.
I know... perfect timing right?
So back in 2016 when President Trump warned us to "be prepared" I took hid advice.
Along with other necessities, I replaced my reloading stuff.
This time I went with a single stage press... because I was concerned about breakage / parts availability when I might need it most.
I had RCBS stuff when I first started decades ago & was happy with it so I was doing that again.
Until the salesman at the store pointed out that the Hornady "kit" was on sale and they give away free bullets with each die set.
I mentioned that with the exception of one time, out of the more than a dozen "rebates" I've never gotten them. He said he got his.
Anyway the price alone was worth it so I got Hornady.
VERY happy with it BTW.
The press alone got me 500 .45 cal XTP bullets and they actually sent them. Fast too.
When the smoke cleared, I ended up with about 1,000 each of both .45 and 1,000 .357.
The quality is outstanding!
I might be the only guy on the planet who tested XTP bullets on the range.
I kept it to a minimum as my intent is only defensive ammo. But still... 2,000 bullets should last several lifetimes.
For range use, I use Berry's or my own cast bullets.
2,000 there is only one afternoon lol.
I'm still extremely impressed that Hornady held up their end of the deal.
I hope others cashed in on that. It made dies very affordable.

Condolences for your loss, the equipment and components left in your shed. What if ... what if the new owners are not handloaders and they're saving it for you?

Anyways, I did the free bullet thing with Hornaday back ten or twelve years ago and they always delivered. I bought three die sets and an LnL press which I rarely use but Hornady buikds good quality stuff. I'm not crazy about their dies but I do use them sometimes. (I go green or gray on dies.)

Hornady is a good company. They never fail to send updated bullet charts at Christmas time and they constantly innovating with new cartridges and new high ballistic coefficient projectiles and high speed personal protection pistol projectiles.

Their handloaders manual is always pretty good although I would love to know how they derive their data sometimes.

Hornady needs to support us 308 and 338 MX (Marlin Express) fans. They have been very innovative with their FTX line for we avid levergunners ... but they need to make more and keep up with demand.

I'll snatch-up all the FTX and XTP fare I can get my hands-on.

I think a lot of Hornady. Good company.

 

[lordpaxman]

Hornady’s “free” bullets with their equipment has been pretty good. The fact the XTP is a great bullet is even better. They have a cost associated with their value so I don’t use them everyday, but would if I could. Good luck with your new reloading gear.

 

[Airborne Falcon]

When Wal-Mart was unloading all their handgun stuff I got a couple boxes of 185gr XTP's for 45 acp, for $10.00 per box, and one box of 125gr in 38 caliber for $8.50. I would have bought 5 times as many if they'd have had them for that price

Those were crazy days about 12 years ago or so .... I was driving around to every Walmart I could find in a 50 mile radius and loading-up. We'll never see those days again. I bought so much 44 Mag specialty stuff and literally 100+ boxes of the Velociraptor 22LR at like $3.00 a box. I was literally getting buddies in Savanah and Augusta to hit their local Wally Worlds and bring me everything they could get their hands-on at the time. I hit this one Wally World about 50 miles north of here and scored so much high speeds personal defense 9mm, 357 Mag, 44 Mag and that 22 LR Velociraptor stuff ... an unopened case of it. Little bitty small town Wally World and I asked the guy if there was a limit and he said no, he had to get rid of all of it. I had to cart it all out in a basket. I mean I had a map out on my bench seat hitting every small town I coukd find one weekend asking locals where their newrest Walmart was located. It is amazing how many small town Walmarts there are out there. Man oh man has that company's politics changed since.

We will never see those days again. That was one of the happiest couple of weeks of my life ... lol.

Hey SmeeAgain I'd reach out to the people that bought the house from you, they may surprise you. The wife and I found some stuff stashed away in this house and we managed to track down the people we bought the house from in 2016 ... they were so happy I thought she was going to french me or something. She couldn't believe it. I was like whoa, it's okay, my pleasure to do it and it was a nice drive ... you just never know friend.

Where'd you "move back from?" How did you manage to forget a shed full of treasures including your reloading equipment?

Running from the Feds? The mob? An ex wife? Middle of the night move amirite? Lol, anyways ... when we moved the very first things I loaded into my pickup were my guns and reloading stuff. I didn't let the movers get near that stuff. I may be buried with some of my stuff. I pet it every day and talk to it and touch-up little dings and scratches ...

Glad to have you back in the fold reloading again! If you need a Hornady bullet chart to decorate your man cave wall let me know.

 

[DMW1116]

I have only had one bad experience with Hornady XTPs. I’ve loaded the 147 grain in 9mm, 158 and 125 grain in 357, and 115 grain in 9mm. The 115 grain in 9mm was all over the place. The others were the most accurate I’ve tried in 357, beating my Hornady HBWC target load by a slim margin. The 147 grainers in 9mm were the most accurate until I tried the Lehigh Xtreme Defenders, but the margin is quite small.

I load the 147s at near max with CFE Pistol based on Hornadys data. The 357 magnum uses 2400 and HS-6 for 158 and 125 grain projectiles respectively and are near compressed loads. No doubt what the magnum stands for when I shoot those.

 

[Varminterror]

I might be the only guy on the planet who tested XTP bullets on the range.

This is kinda like claiming you’re the only guy on the planet who has ever tried breathing…