sighting in on Liberty Ammunition
experience was amazed and impressed with the POA-POI impact of the Liberty bullets. He said he’d never seen a bullet that wasn’t defl ected by a vehicle windshield before. A gelatin block was placed behind the windshield when the 9mm round was fi red to see how the projectile performed after being asked to punch through the tough laminated glass. T e wound channel was not as impressive as before, but the bullet did penetrate 7.5 inches. It didn’t come apart and fl ake off its petals. It did take a tumble downward in the gel. Obviously, bullets lose a signifi cant portion of their abil- ity to behave as designed when encountering laminated automobile glass. But the Liberty round, despite its low weight, still did dam- age and penetrated the gel after smashing through the windshield.
Car Door T e sheet metal of car doors really isn’t all that tough. Each Liberty caliber went through the car door and out the other side into the target without a hitch. Usually bul- lets can hit steel gears and other window crank and safety features inside of car doors. We must have missed all of those because
the Liberty rounds penetrated easily, includ- ing the .380 out of the Bodyguard.
NTOA Recommended
The National Tactical Officers Associa- tion (NTOA) awards an “NTOA Member Tested and Recommended” to products that receive a rating of 3.0 or higher when tested in the fi eld by their law enforcement com- munity. Liberty’s Civil Defense 9mm Luger round received a perfect 5.0 (defi ned as a product that performs at a level above ad- vertised specifi cations and demonstrates its usefulness and quality of workmanship every time it is used and can be used for other pur- poses) and the NTOA’s Gold award. It is the fi rst time any ammunition has received such a high rating by the NTOA.
Whenever a bullet reaches a certain speed, there is concern about its ability to penetrate common soft police body armor. We were not able to test the Civil Defense ammunition against body armor. Liberty’s representative stated that the tested rounds would not pen- etrate police body armor. However, individ- ual offi cers and departments should consider the fact that various handgun calibers (due to their bullet design and velocity) and many
rifl e calibers will defeat soft body armor. Each police offi cer with an interest in fi re-
arms has an opinion concerning carry ammo for duty and off -duty. T e offi cers involved and witnessing T e Police Marksman’s test of Liberty’s Civil Defense ammunition all came away impressed. T e 9mm was the focus of the experimentation and that round passed every barrier and convinced us of its ability to deliver devastating energy and stopping power to the closest example of human tis- sue (the ballistic ordnance gel block) we have and through common clothing. While some traditional bullets perform well in gel, they fail at penetration tests like drywall, windshields, and car doors. Oth- ers penetrate well, but don’t deliver a large wound cavity created by hydrostatic shock. Most bullets are a compromise in their de- sign—penetration vs. expansion. After the 1986 FBI Miami Shootout, penetration was deemed most important by that agency. Many law enforcement agencies agree with that assessment. However, over penetration can be a concern for police offi cers. T ere are also those who do not believe in the ability of hydrostatic shock to actually cause a person to stop being an immediate threat. Striking the balance seemed to be the Civil Defense round’s attribute. T e hollow- point opened and the petals fl aked off to cre- ate an impressive temporary wound cavity. T e core bullet also penetrated 10 inches. Is that deep enough? You and your agency can make that decision.
Regardless of which you believe in more,
The Civil Defense rounds all penetrated double drywall simulating an interior wall. Top row: .38, 9mm, .380; Middle row: .357, .40, .45; Bottom: .223.
52 The Police Marksman Summer 2015
Liberty’s 9mm did everything it was asked to do and it did it with less recoil. Liberty Am- munition’s Civil Defense cartridges launch a properly designed and executed lightweight projectile at very high speeds. T e goal of T e Police Marksman test of Liberty’s new ammo wasn’t to prove or disprove any of the theories of ballistic stopping power, but rather to verify Liberty’s claims about their Civil Defense rounds. T eir rounds were found to be a functional proposition for law enforcement carry, both on and off -duty. PM
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