Freedom Munitions Review

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In our searches for the best price on ammunition I'm sure plenty of us have found our way to Freedom Munitions. Well I did, and with $0.21/round 9mm I couldn't pass up a case of 500. Though they do also sell cases of 1000 at the same price per round.

Now I don't have anything fancy like a chronograph, nor do I have a lot of experience, but I can at least give my impressions as I go through the case.

I went with the basic remanufactured 115gr. 9mm round nose FMJ. The price was good, and since it was my first order I got free shipping. I ordered on Friday June 27 and received the shipment on Tuesday July 8. So not too fast, but not bad for having been ordered on a Friday and having a holiday in the middle. And nothing beats delivery straight to my door.

It came in a pretty standard shipping box. With 10 boxes of 50 rounds each. The missing one I took to the range before taking the photos.
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The box did have some wear and tear from coming half way across the country care of UPS. Thankfully, all of the 50 round boxes were in good condition. No loose ammo here!
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Each individual box was also marked clearly with the information, I'm assuming they just pull them of the shelves and package them separately for different count orders.
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Now, to the actual rounds. They are all clearly recycled brass with various blemishes on the sides, here's a selection of 10 randomly pulled from a box. (if you look closely you can see me in the bullets)
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And all have different manufacturer markings around the primers. But looked to be in good condition.
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As far as shooting goes, I put them through a new Smith & Wesson M&P 9 full size (4 and a quarter inch barrel). So new it had only had 100 rounds of Winchester White Box through it. Well that and the test round in Massachusetts. I didn't notice much of a difference between them and the WBB a week ago. The biggest thing was that they seemed to be a whole lot cleaner. Even counting for the 50 round difference I wasn't covered with nearly as much soot and blowback as with the WWB, and it took me a substantial shorter amount of time to clean my pistol, three swabs as compared to nine. Whatever particulate was left was also much smaller.

Not a single misfire or FTF or FTE. And nice clean holes in the paper. The groupings were fairly consistent, well as consistent as I could make them, and there were no fliers. I've been shooting at 20' just to get used to the handling side of things, I'll start pushing it out next week.

I do plan to update/edit this as I go through the case. Right now I figure one box a week will keep me shooting for a while. And I might go out and purchase some other ammunition to compare it against.

[Edit 7/17]Added in what I was shooting them through, M&P9 and how they were accuracy wise.

[Edit 7/23]

went to the range yesterday and went through the second box of 50. Same as before, everything shot clean and accurate.

No misfires or bad primers. Double checked to make sure all of the bullets were properly seated in the casings as I loaded them. All were secure.

Surprised by how clean they shot again. It took me six patches to clean my whole piece. And it could've been fewer but I wanted to see where most of the build up was. Mostly it was at the chamber end of the barrel and against the striker. Again no large particles in the barrel like after shooting WWB.

[Edit 9/22] After 3 months I've finally finished off my 500 rounds. In all of those I had only one round with any type of anomaly, a Crimped primer. Everything else was just fine. Shot clean and as straight as I could. Even put a few dozen in a friend's Glock 17 gen. 4 and another friend's Beretta 92fs,they all liked them just fine. I've found my range ammo for sure and recommend them to anyone looking at an alternative to WWB or cheap Eastern European stuff.
Last edited by KnightsFan on Mon Sep 22, 2014 12:48 pm, edited 3 times in total.
"No one can build his security upon the nobleness of another person."
-Willa Cather

Re: Freedom Munitions Review

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In general, Freedom Munitions is OK for remanufactured reloads. Their reloads prices are on par with steel case ammo. I've shot several thousand rounds of the remanufactured 9mm and .40 and around a 1000 rds of 5.56.

For 9mm, I've shot 115, 124 and 147 grain ammo. The sweet spot for me and my guns is the 124 grn. I think I've had a few FTFs but I was really looking at the problem. The .40 performs similarly, I shoot the 180 grn. I have had a problem with the .40 165 grn where the powder does not burn completely. Freedom Munitions has a plinking line of ammo called Blaster which also exhibited this problem (it was during the ammo shortage).

A friend had a 9mm round that wasn't crimped properly and you could push the bullet into the case with you fingers. I've had some problems with binding in my magazines that may be related to incorrect length, but it also could have been just dust from dropping the magazine. I'll take a case gauge to the ammo before shoot a match.

With the 5.56, I can shoot 1 MOA at 100 yards, if I concentrate really hard, I can get a sub-MOA grouping. I haven't had any problems with the 5.56 so far.

The other great thing is that they have good deals. The UPS man just rang the doorbell and delivered 1K of 9 and .40 each for just $5. That's 60 lbs delivered in 10 days.

Re: Freedom Munitions Review

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Spara wrote:A friend had a 9mm round that wasn't crimped properly and you could push the bullet into the case with you fingers. I've had some problems with binding in my magazines that may be related to incorrect length, but it also could have been just dust from dropping the magazine.
Thanks, I'll keep an eye on that. Was it during the run on ammo?
"No one can build his security upon the nobleness of another person."
-Willa Cather

Re: Freedom Munitions Review

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I bought a 500 case of their 100gr .380 last summer and had the exact same experience as KnightsFan. They ship from Houston so, if I'm remembering right, I got them a little faster, maybe 5 days or thereabout. Good clean rounds with no failures of any kind run through a Bersa Thunder. Great range ammo! Planning on getting some of their 9mm soon. Good to hear positive initial reports on those.

Re: Freedom Munitions Review

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KickABuck wrote:I'm a big fan of the 147gr RN New
If I may, what are you running this in? I keep 147gr XTP as defensive load in my G19, but I've been using 115 or 124 at the range, I see the obvious benefit to training with the heavier load. Not that I really have much doubt about FM's product or the Glock's ability to chew up and spit out anything with a jacket, just curious.

Re: Freedom Munitions Review

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pies wrote:/
KickABuck wrote:I'm a big fan of the 147gr RN New
If I may, what are you running this in? I keep 147gr XTP as defensive load in my G19, but I've been using 115 or 124 at the range, I see the obvious benefit to training with the heavier load. Not that I really have much doubt about FM's product or the Glock's ability to chew up and spit out anything with a jacket, just curious.
Glock 34... the price difference between the 3 weights isn't a big factor for me, the 147's shoot soft and solid out of the gun.. and great for putting down steel plates. I'm going to stick with these until I start reloading.

Re: Freedom Munitions Review

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KickABuck wrote:
Glock 34... the price difference between the 3 weights isn't a big factor for me, the 147's shoot soft and solid out of the gun.. and great for putting down steel plates. I'm going to stick with these until I start reloading.

I'll second the 147 weight bullets. I prefer to load them over any other weight for my G17 at this point.
“Do the best you can until you know better. Then when you know better, do better.”
- Maya Angelou

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Re: Freedom Munitions Review

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shinzen wrote:
KickABuck wrote:
Glock 34... the price difference between the 3 weights isn't a big factor for me, the 147's shoot soft and solid out of the gun.. and great for putting down steel plates. I'm going to stick with these until I start reloading.

I'll second the 147 weight bullets. I prefer to load them over any other weight for my G17 at this point.
What's the difference in shooting them from a smaller grain?
"No one can build his security upon the nobleness of another person."
-Willa Cather

Re: Freedom Munitions Review

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KnightsFan wrote:
What's the difference in shooting them from a smaller grain?
It's a softer feel to the recoil than the snappier 115/124 grain bullets, as kickabuck mentioned. I liken it in similarity to shooting a 45, less snap, more push, if that makes sense.
“Do the best you can until you know better. Then when you know better, do better.”
- Maya Angelou

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Re: Freedom Munitions Review

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ErikO wrote:If their reloads ever end up cheaper than mine I'll buy them. ;)
Well without the space, tools or know-how to reload I'll stick with their stuff.

Also I finally found something iffy about their rounds.

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(Sorry for crappy cellphone photo)

This is an unfired 9mm round. The dimpling on the surface of the primer had me concerned, I kept it aside and loaded it in a magazine by itself, pulled the trigger and it went bang like the rest. Standard recoil and everything, unfortunately the floor was covered with brass so I couldn't find the casing afterward. Anybody have an explanation of what would cause this?
"No one can build his security upon the nobleness of another person."
-Willa Cather

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