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 sighting in on: Liberty Ammunition


round penetrated the entire 16 inches of the ballistics gel and was recovered in its expanded shape. T e wound channel was again just slightly more than the expanded width of the projectile. A paramedic was on hand to observe the test and he related that he’s seen plenty of “through and through” wounds like those caused by the lead bullets. Pressure is applied front and rear to the patient and they’re taken to the hospital where they’re patched up. He pointed at the wound chan- nel from the Liberty 9mm round and said, “T ose guys don’t make it to the hospital. T ey usually don’t even make it into the ambulance.” T e gel block was then covered with a T-shirt, a dress shirt, and a pair of denim jeans. T e Liberty 9mm round performed exactly the same through this clothing as it did in the bare gelatin.


While not all Civil Defense rounds were tested in the gelatin blocks, the .380 ACP round was fi red from a Smith & Wesson Bodyguard with a 2 ¾-inch barrel. T is was done out of curiosity because so many offi cers carry the Bodyguard or the Ruger LCP that we wanted to see how the Liberty .380 performed. T e fi ve rounds fi red did not expand, but rather tumbled through the gel until they stopped at around 7.5 inches. When recovered, they were pristine, with only rifl ing grooves from the gun’s barrel in evidence. When asked, Liberty stated that it’s diffi cult to get a .380 bullet up to enough speed from a short barrel like the Body- guard’s or LCP’s. It’s too bad we didn’t have a Walther PPK with a 3.3-inch long barrel to see if the .380 would expand like the other Liberty rounds. Liberty said they are work- ing on obtaining better performance out of their .380 cartridge for super short barreled semi-automatics.


Drywall


Two pieces of standard drywall were secured with 2x4 studs to simulate the typical walls inside a home. Civil Defense cartridges were fi red into the wallboard in .380, .38 Special, .357 Magnum, 9mm, .40 S&W, 10mm, .45 Long Colt, and .223 out of various fi re-


51 The Police Marksman Summer 2015


 Liberty’s 9mm bullet performed virtually the same through clothing (T-shirt, dress shirt, and denim jacket) as it did into the bare gelatin.


arms chambered to shoot each round. Every round passed easily through the walls and impacted the target positioned behind. T e .223 Remington Civil Defense round is an all-copper, 55-grain hollowpoint. T ese rifl e rounds were fi red out of an IWI Tavor with a 16.5-inch barrel.


Windshield Glass T e same fi rearms were used to fi re one round of each of the Civil Defense car- tridges through the Jeep windshield, which was held at a 45-degree angle and an addi- tional 11 degrees canted to the side. T ere is never a guarantee when bullets come into contact with laminated safety glass wind- shields. Many lead-based bullets will not re- liably penetrate windshields and stay intact. Bonded bullets will more likely pass through


a windshield, but are often caused to follow a downward trajectory when fi red into a ve- hicle and follow an upward trajectory when fi red from inside a vehicle. T e angle of the glass causes all kinds of havoc.


Liberty’s claim is that their rounds not only penetrate windshield glass reliably, but they are so fast that the point of aim is also their point of impact. I had seen this demon- strated, but the carnival fraud investigator in me wanted to do it myself before I believed it. Sure enough, each round punched a clean hole through the windshield and impacted the target right where it was aimed. Even the .380 Civil Defense round went through the Wrangler’s laminated glass from the 2 ¾-inch barrel of an S&W Bodyguard. Many didn’t think the little .380 cartridge could do it. A veteran offi cer with extensive SWAT


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