Liberty Ammunition was founded soon after 9/11 with the goal of creating premium, lead-free rounds. They got their start producing ammunition for the military and started selling on the commercial market in 2013, and their ammo has been enjoying increasing popularity. The Personal Defense Network recently put their 9mm Civil Defense HP rounds through ballistic gel tests. At just 50 grain the lead-free rounds are incredibly lightweight which both minimizes recoil and enables them to zip down-range at impressive speeds, and during testing PDN found they penetrate even after passing through barriers.

During testing the 9mm rounds were first fired directly into ballistic gel and noted to have penetrated to a depth of between 5″ and 6″. Then they were fired through multiple panes of tempered glass that had been placed in front of ballistic gel. Throughout testing, which involved about 500 rounds, PDN’s Rob Pincus reported just a single double-feed.

Take a look at video of testing: http://www.personaldefensenetwork.com/video/007372-a-firearms-training-performance-test-with-liberty-ammunition-civil-defense-rounds/

These rounds chronographed at a muzzle velocity of more than 2,000 feet per second and muzzle energy of 450 foot-pounds.

We’ve certainly discussed this before from various angles, but what do you guys think of the light weight and 5″ ballistic gel penetration of these rounds? Are these really viable defense rounds?

Liberty was in the news last month for winning a lawsuit against the federal government for patent infringement. The judge ruled in Liberty’s favor, ordering a payout of $15.6 million along with royalties of 1.4 cents for every single round the government buys until Liberty’s patent runs out in 2027. The rounds the lawsuit concerned? M855A1, the Enhanced Performance Round version of the original M855, the rounds BATFE now wants to ban on a commercial level. The appeals deadline for the lawsuit is February 19, 2015, and there is, as yet, no sign of an appeal being filed.