Better Sporting Ammunition is Here
Oleg Volk 09.22.16
I’ve mentioned “Zeurillium” (zinc alloy) bullets before. MI Bullet offers a 1050fps 90 grain load that has next to no recoil and excellent accuracy. It works very well in blowback pistols like Hi-Point C9 and in conventional tilt-barrel locked breech semiautos. Due to the nonexistent recoil, it does not work in rotating breech pistols like Beretta Cougar or my favorite GP XCalibur. Should I wish to run it exclusively, XCalibur does come with a weaker recoil spring that would accommodate the lightly loaded round, but then I would have to change it out when switching to the carry load.
Fortunately, Velocity Munitions is about to start selling the full-power 1400fps version of this load. Fans of 7.62×25 Tokarev round will observe that the bullet weight and the velocity are very similar between the two loads. While the 9mm load doesn’t expand, it starts out with slightly larger frontal area and does have a decent meplat for punching clean holes. Since the zinc alloy is harder than lead, it has overall penetration similar to jacketed ball.
In the nominal 1400fps iteration, this ammunition ran flawlessly through XCalibur. Recoil was still comparable to a .22 pistol. Together with flat trajectory, the low recoil makes competition shooting with this load quicker and more accurate. XCalibur’s 5″ barrel gives the actual velocity closer to 1450fps, which works out to 127-128 power factor, enough for Minor League. The accuracy and the option of rapid followup really make up for the lighter punch. Since zinc alloy doesn’t require lubricant, this ammunition produces very little smoke, too.
If you look at the casings closely, you will see that they are of two-piece construction. The case head is aluminum, and the case mouth is nickel alloy. Overall, they are lighter than brass, can be reloaded quite a few times, and may be picked up off grass with a magnet. ShellshockTech made many claims for their design, so I wanted to check for myself. So far, 100% reliability. Unlike steel, these don’t rust. Compared to brass, the casing are 50% lighter and have faster heat transfer, both from the action to the casing and from the casing to the air, reducing the risk of burns to the shooter.
The only down side to all this is that the ammunition won’t be available until October 1. In the meantime, you can try their conventional lead ammunition loaded for Cowboy Action and other non-combative uses. My shoulder, for one, will be much happier with 1100fps 45-70 Bone Orchard recipe than with 1880fps Winchester load, while paper targets won’t know the difference.
