Freedom Munitions...squib

[1fast4by]

Ive bought and shot probably 7-8000 rounds of Freedom Munitions before... This is my first time trying their "American Steel" line, I purchased it "New" not reman... So Im a bit saddened to see this...

 

 

[Oh Shoot]

Just for clarity: What you picture is bullet setback. Not good of course as it raises pressure of the round considerably. A squib is an underpowered load causing the bullet to remain in the barrel after firing.

- OS

Edited September 22, 2017 by Oh Shoot

[bvarnell]

Those look like brass cases to me.

[TNMTBik3r]

2 hours ago, bvarnell said:

Those look like brass cases to me.

Brass plated steel per their website.

[ohell]

Nice.  not that I haven't f'ed up but one reason I reload   Let them know.

[chances R]

Squib as OS said, as well as your round pictured showing set-back.  Both potentially dangerous to gun, shooter, and bystanders.  Either could be manufacturing problems or acquired, whether factory or reloads.  Always a good idea to pay attention to what you put in your gun and how you store and handle your ammo.

[sybo]

Definitely setback. High pressures on demand with the pull of a trigger... I would DEFINITELY let the company know!  It’s good you caught it!! I don’t even realize that I check every round before it’s chambered or loaded. Not a bad habit to form.

[jhc77]

I had one today. Short of wetting myself I put my handgun down and called the RSO over. Case ejected but hung up loading the next round. Nothing got damaged. Had a decent fireball (for 9mm 115gr) blow out from the chamber not the muzzle end. I was flinching a bit finishing up the rest of the mag and a half. 

[hipower]

1 hour ago, jhc77 said:

I had one today. Short of wetting myself I put my handgun down and called the RSO over. Case ejected but hung up loading the next round. Nothing got damaged. Had a decent fireball (for 9mm 115gr) blow out from the chamber not the muzzle end. I was flinching a bit finishing up the rest of the mag and a half. 

 

1 hour ago, jhc77 said:

I had one today. Short of wetting myself I put my handgun down and called the RSO over. Case ejected but hung up loading the next round. Nothing got damaged. Had a decent fireball (for 9mm 115gr) blow out from the chamber not the muzzle end. I was flinching a bit finishing up the rest of the mag and a half. 

I have had, and traded for and bought many, many rounds of Freedom Munitions 9mm.

I've liked them quite a bit, until...this. I've had 2 cases split in the chamber. Horizontally around the case about 1/4 inch above the primer and base. 

Both fired, but sounded a bit "off" to me. On inspection, I found that the rim and case ejected, but the upper portion of the case stayed in the chamber. Both times the situation was easily remedied with the use of a dowel rod.

But it has made me somewhat leery of FM products. JMO

Edited April 19, 2018 by hipower

[Raoul]

If it makes you feel better I had a similar problem with Winchester 9mm once.

It happens.

[jhc77]

No telling how much I’ve got left. Guess next range run I’ll try to finish it up so it’s gone. Could be there a while unfortunately.

[DaveTN]

I had a bullet set-back like that in a box of WWB once. I probably could have got a free box of ammo; but didn’t mess with it.

[Raoul]

No manufacturing process is perfect. I'm surprised we don't see more bad ammo.

[Jamie Jackson]

8 hours ago, Raoul said:

No manufacturing process is perfect. I'm surprised we don't see more bad ammo.

Truth here!

I've had/seen issues with pretty much every ammo maker through the years, but it's a remarkably low percentage of occurrences.

I've fired a fair amount of Freedom Munitions and used a lot of their components (X-treme bullets) in handloads and have been pleased with the results.

I've probably had more issues with Winchester White box, but that's because it was once less expensive than handloading and therefore purely a volume thing.

The best and safest practice is to check every round we placed in a mag, but sometimes it's just gonna be a bad round.

[hipower]

17 hours ago, jhc77 said:

No telling how much I’ve got left. Guess next range run I’ll try to finish it up so it’s gone. Could be there a while unfortunately.

LOL! Same here brother. I need to inventory again, but it's a large number. Being my "favorite" caliber, I tend to have a few boxes around.

[jdw174]

I've seen rounds from every major ammo maker with no powder, no primer, primers in backwards, split casings and bullets pushed back in the case.

[stumpy]

After reading a few comments from different users about the Freedom Munitions bullets telescoping back into the case - makes me convinced I would never use any of their steel cased ammunition.  The lucky shooters are the few who found these rounds before they tried to fire them.  The unlucky ones are those who loaded this ammo in their firearms and the bullets deep-seated into the cases during it's movement up the ramp and into the chamber.  The resulting pressure spikes would be scary at least and potentially harmful to the firearm and people near it when it fired.  No thanks, I'll continue to load my own ammo.  For that matter, if Freedom's quality control people have not tested this product enough to discover and remedy the situation, how well do their QC their other offerings.  Food for thought.

[Raoul]

The sky is falling.....

[n0rlf]

I never found the FM process to be good enough to justify not just buying new. I have not considered their steel stuff at all so no idea how it prices. 

As for regular 9mm fmj it was about the same as new Remington or Winchester white if I shopped around. 

To each their own I guess and I do reload most of mine anyway. And like every other reloaded I have had a bad one occasionally. 

It is not as unusual as most would think. Fix it and move on. Now if I get a lot of bad ones from one place then I just moved on to another manufacturer.