Hornady Zmax bullets

[Waterboy3313]

Curious if anyone has tried these. I've been on a semi serious hunt for some Hornady XTP 230gr projectiles for a while and ran across some of these Z max in 185gr. I decided to order 500 since that's what was available and the price wasn't horrible.

The picture looked like the bullet used in the Hornady critical defense ammo that I carry in my 1911. I am running low on sd ammo and these will be used for that purpose after loading a workup and some testing.

Also I don't have any load data on this bullet. At this point from only seeing pictures I am assuming these are XTP bullets with a polymer plug. I figured on using the XTP Data as a starting point to work up from. I will be using Titegroup powder for now as I have about 5LBS and nothing else at this point.

I definitely appreciate any thoughts,ideas, or experience you are willing to share.

 

[Varminterror]

They’re not XTP’s. The FTX’s are their own jacket and construction, own profiles. But the data would be a relatively close starting point. The 185 .451” FTX is the bullet used in their Critical Defense line - the Zmax thing is just a re-badge, I assume because they don’t sell it as a standard offering, they dumped some green polymer and are offloading an overrun.

 

[Waterboy3313]

That's good to know. I will have to do some research to find a good starting point for a workup.

I carry the critical duty ammo in 9mm and 45acp in my carry guns. The factory stuff seems to be very accurate. I have shot a little of it for a test and then screwed up and didn't realize I grabbed the wrong magazine until it was almost empty.

I am also kind of curious about the polymer plug. I could speculate several different reasons for its real purpose but I'm sure all of my theories would be wrong.