50 grain 9mm..... Liberty USM4

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Finally after lots of looking I found some Liberty USM4...
If you have not heard of it (seems no gun shop employees have considering almost everyone I asked about it told me i was confused) its a lead free 9mm hollow point and its 50 grains.... Its got a muzzle velocity of 2000 fps... and its energy is 450fpe.... Crazy numbers! the youtube tests i see shows a amazing wound channel in the first 5 inches then the back of the bullet continues another 6 inches... Looks to be a awsome home defense round as I think drywall will really do a number on it... I did get to fire a couple this am I can say two things

1. holy crap my gun weights nothing! going from a full mag of 147 grain to 50.... makes a big difference!
2. a noticeably lighter recoil.... Not dramatic but you can tell..

So with that and the test I have seen on youtube I am a fan My new carry ammo

So if you haven't heard of it look around it comes in 40 as well!
 
mehhhhhhh I'm not sold.
I watched a few review vids, I'm gonna stick with my 147gr carry ammo.
 
Really the biggest thing for me was when I picked up my gun... Feels like it went on jenny craig...
 
Looks like I'm a little late jumping into this discussion but I picked up a box along with a box of Hydrashoks to see what shot better in my G19C. Definitely noticed a reduction in recoil with the USM4 and noticeably lighter weight as well. Couldn't really tell what the damage from the round was as I was just at my local range firing into a plywood target board then on into a berm but I was definitely more accurate with the Liberty vs. the Hydrashoks. And after watching the damage they cause on a Youtube video, the USM4 has been in my weapon ever since. Just my two cents.
 
Any feedback on how this round feeds and cycles?

I tried some lightweight Lehigh Maximum Expansion (both 9mm and .45 ACP) the other day, and had a lot of problems with feeding. Could be because the reduced recoil, the profile of the bullet, or a combination of the two.
 
This stuff is gimmick ammo (like magsafe) and likely to be complete trash. I bet it pretty much disintegrates if you shoot a piece of balgel with it, and even the big pieces of whatever is left probably don't penetrate very deeply. If I was a betting man I bet the biggest chunk/fragment of bullet left doesn't travel more than 7 or 8 inches in calibrated balgel. I would be surprised if it made it beyond that.

I wouldn't trust my life to it. I'd carry UMC 115gr ball ammo before I carried that crap.

-Mike
 
I was wrong, mea culpa.... the biggest chunk made it longer than that.... but it's still pretty shitty ammunition. It's probably WAY better than magsafe, but that's not really saying a whole lot.

 
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Where does one get balgel? Alternately, how does one make balgel? I'd like to perform my own tests of various loads.

If you poke around tnoutdoors9 channel I think he has a whole video dedicated to describing the process of how he makes his balgel blocks. It's kinda pointless to do it yourself though- most of the stuff that's worth carrying, that guy has tested at least once, under varying circumstances. His channel has saved me a crapload of time, I'll tell you that much.. A lot of times these tests were not something that got distributed or published all over the place, you had to know people to get the data or do a lot of digging.

-Mike
 
I picked up a box of the .40 the other day. Haven't had a chance to try it yet. It's a 60gn bullet, supposedly moving at 2000fps. The nose cavity is huge. It is noticeably lighter weight than conventional ammo. I'm curious to see how it functions in the two pistols I have chambered for .40.
 
Pullman Arms had some a while back. I thought the box was empty at first.... didn't buy any, though. I'll stick with 165gr Buffalo Bore +P's for home defense (Critical Duty for regular carry)
 
This stuff is gimmick ammo (like magsafe) and likely to be complete trash. I bet it pretty much disintegrates if you shoot a piece of balgel with it, and even the big pieces of whatever is left probably don't penetrate very deeply. If I was a betting man I bet the biggest chunk/fragment of bullet left doesn't travel more than 7 or 8 inches in calibrated balgel. I would be surprised if it made it beyond that.

I wouldn't trust my life to it. I'd carry UMC 115gr ball ammo before I carried that crap.

-Mike

This.

I wouldn't use it unless there were positive independent tests showing how well these bullets work against heavy clothing, barriers, windshields, etc.
 
I own some and currently keep it as my home defense ammo. I watched a few videos about and read about and decided I liked it. Recoil isn't much different, but I prefer the energy being used to add velocity rather than move more mass. There is enough penetration to stop a scumbag, but it fragments so easily it wouldn't likely carry much energy to a neighbor's house. Works for me...or so I hope to never know.
 
In a mouse gun it might be good as the weight reduction would be most noticeable and the increased velocity would be good in a short barrel. Unsure of the performance of such a light bullet though.
 
Being that I might have to shoot through an intermediate barrier, and that this doesn't make 12 inches in bare gel, still gonna pass.
 
I own some and currently keep it as my home defense ammo. I watched a few videos about and read about and decided I liked it. Recoil isn't much different, but I prefer the energy being used to add velocity rather than move more mass. There is enough penetration to stop a scumbag, but it fragments so easily it wouldn't likely carry much energy to a neighbor's house. Works for me...or so I hope to never know.

That is an excellent point/theory for using it as a HD type round. Not only would it be very unlikely to hit a neighbors house, but also unlikely to hit someone you care about in another room. The downside to that of course is that wouldn't be able to count on hitting a BG through a wall, or door either...

I was actually at my LGS this morning and saw some boxes of that available. If I had the extra cash on me, I would have bought some to test out, but ended up buying a bunch of other ammo that I needed to replace instead.
 
Huh this thread came back.... Update I shot through all of my USM and decided to go back to my old carry ammo... Some people say USM is awesome others say it junk... I know hst is a great round that works there is no question..... So why use a round that may be better or may be junk
..
 
Came in to the discussion a bit late, but here are my thoughts:
I live in an apartment, with neighbors on every side. I keep the USM4 50 grain in my Beretta 92 at night, but keep my extra mag loaded with 147 grain hollow points. Think if I unloaded 10 rounds of the 50 gr into an intruder, they probably won't get up and ask me to reload. And I have more peace of mind knowing my neighbors will be safer.
 
Lee Juris at Super Vel and Massad Ayoob with Cor Bon have already covered this ground pretty well with their +P+ 90 grain copper and lead rounds. And even those light weight round caused controversy -- they had terrific velocity at the muzzle with great energy but real world penetration was found by many to be unsatisfactory. I guess I just love my 124 grain +P Gold Dots. Great expansion, great penetration and no issues with cycling. Perhaps that makes me old school. But it certainly will be interesting to see if this new ammo can prove itself worthy. Thanks for making the post and opening our eyes to something new!
 
The usual smoke test for a PD round in a handgun should be, with limited exceptions (for example, Hornady, Buffalo Bore, some of their stuff at least) "Does this vendor currently sell this same round in a 50 round LE package?" If the answer is "no" then you probably should look for something else. Not to mention when you actually want to buy more of it, if you can get your hands on 50 round boxes you won't get ripped off. (or at least not as easily).

-Mike
 
The usual smoke test for a PD round in a handgun should be, with limited exceptions (for example, Hornady, Buffalo Bore, some of their stuff at least) "Does this vendor currently sell this same round in a 50 round LE package?" If the answer is "no" then you probably should look for something else. Not to mention when you actually want to buy more of it, if you can get your hands on 50 round boxes you won't get ripped off. (or at least not as easily).

-Mike


Mike,
Winchester Ranger, 127gr. +p+. If it aint broke, don't fix it.
 
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