Freedom Munitions 9mm Reman Quality?

[AMProducts]

So a few things...

Freedom Ammunition is run by the same people who run Ammoload Worldwide (the company that sells loading equipment)

The same company also owns Extreme bullets.

There are two things I know: Extreme bullets are not great quality, I've had a lot of problems with them over the years (the lead core is often too soft, and the jacket strips). The second, the impact-extruded 9mm Freedom was making have a bad habit of cracking across the side (splitting the case in half), as far as I know, this only affects the cases when they're reloaded. It's easy to tell the difference as the impact-extruded cases have a step in them.

Generally, I'm inclined to think they're probably a victim of their own success here when it comes to the "brass trade in" program as I've seen a lot of really terrible brass out there.

I know this much, I can reload 9mm for a bit less than half of what I can buy new for, unless the cost of reman ammo is less than 2/3 of what new is, I probably wouldn't waste my time. Personally, I'm kinda getting to the point that I can get brand new 9mm brass more easily than I can get once-fired 9mm, so I just "reload" new ammo.

 

[fxdc]

So a few things...

Freedom Ammunition is run by the same people who run Ammoload Worldwide (the company that sells loading equipment)

The same company also owns Extreme bullets.

There are two things I know: Extreme bullets are not great quality, I've had a lot of problems with them over the years (the lead core is often too soft, and the jacket strips). The second, the impact-extruded 9mm Freedom was making have a bad habit of cracking across the side (splitting the case in half), as far as I know, this only affects the cases when they're reloaded. It's easy to tell the difference as the impact-extruded cases have a step in them.

Generally, I'm inclined to think they're probably a victim of their own success here when it comes to the "brass trade in" program as I've seen a lot of really terrible brass out there.

I know this much, I can reload 9mm for a bit less than half of what I can buy new for, unless the cost of reman ammo is less than 2/3 of what new is, I probably wouldn't waste my time. Personally, I'm kinda getting to the point that I can get brand new 9mm brass more easily than I can get once-fired 9mm, so I just "reload" new ammo.

Can I ask the time frame of your experience with the stripping of the plating? And fps your load was running?

 

[AMProducts]

Can I ask the time frame of your experience with the stripping of the plating? And fps your load was running?

It was a mid-range load of titegroup. Off the top of my head I think 4.2gr, I'd have to check my notes if you want to be exact. It was the 124gr RN we had trouble with. It was the same load I used with both Berry's and Rainier with no issues. The load spec was 1050fps, and that load was +/- ~15fps. This was a problem a few times with different lots, it was always traced to the underlying bullet material being too soft, and the plating too thin (we would strip off the plating with ferric chloride and weigh before/after and then use a hardness tester, which usually measured about 6 brinell, which is only slightly better than dead soft chemical lead)

If you're trying to debug the issue, I'm not really sure I could be much more specific than that, I haven't bought any in at least 2 years at this point, as have a steady supply of FMJ from one of my customers.

 

[fxdc]

Yes I am debugging , the owner that at started the original biz is an old friend, and been using the products since 89.

It was sold a couple of times but Jim had to step back in at its troubled times and is currently on site each day even though HMT has it.

Jim had sponsored my old team in Reno and would even bring ammo out to our matches and supplied our prize table with goodie during the western states championship.

Sooo
2 yrs since using the FMJ 124gr, with a soft core. Over the time span when was it 1st noted?

Anything else I can talk with them about?

 

[AMProducts]

This was shortly after HMT took over, it was an ongoing problem for a while as we couldn't reliably get Berry's, I think I let Angela know about it at SHOT shortly after we started noticing it, and eventually just discontinued use of 'em. The problem seemed to be very specific to titegroup, which TBH has a sharper pressure curve at the start and was likely a contributing factor.

Specific Dates, I think I first noticed it in about 2011/2012, but it was spotty and not repeatable, then by about 2012-2013 the problem was traced to the bullet/powder combo, so we lightened the load to 4.5 of W231/HP38 and ran that until we ran out of bullets. Never did a lot of volume with 9mm, I think the total amount affected was maybe 20,000.

I'll dig through and see if I actually still have some of the bullets and test data. This was two jobs ago, so who knows.

 

[fxdc]

APM
Thanks please do let me know.

Yeah I remember the girls in tow at times .... little things back then.

I use the 124 and 115 at major 9
Speed and not noticed anything at all possible at time frame I was using a lots of 45 also.

When sold and was west coast bullet there were lots of issues .

Also I may of missed that LOT ,
As I also used TG at some scary speeds.... but no pressure signs. I got lucky. LOL

Send me that lot # please.
Thanks.