Forums / Gun Discussion / Glaser® Blue & Silver Safety Ammo and MagSafe Self - Defense Ammo

I've heard of a few older semiauto's that really didn't like feeding Glasers. One individual actually had carried his Walther PPK with it loaded up with them, and when he bought a new box he decided to shoot the older stuff. Chambered round went bang, second round would not feed and he went through the whole mag like that.

With any ammo, you want to run it through your weapon to ensure that it is going to function, no matter what your told or have read..

Over all it is an excellent round, I'd mix them up with another defense round. Say Critical Defense or Corbon...

Also, the Remington Frangible in 9 mm has a nasty habit of the bullet head breaking off when it hits the face of the ramp in some semiautos....

I haven't bought any glaser but thought about picking some up to try at the range so I will be watching this thread.

1. Expensive....anywhere from $1.50 to $4.00 a round, depending on cal/flavor and dealer. That's too expensive for me to buy 100 or even 50 to see if they run 100% in a given weapon, even if they did perform better than proven JHPs loads.

2. Inconsistent. The Glaser Blue .44sp was one of only 2 standard cartridge/gun combos that has been unsatisfactorily accurate for me. In a gun that otherwise ran fine (4" .44sp), groups were over 8", slow-fire, single-action at 7 yards. That is not suitably accurate for any 'social' use in my book. Even cheap practice ammo groups were less than half that size.

3. Inadequate penetration. If you hit a limb or other intervening barrier (very common in actual gunfights) no flavor of Glaser will reliably penetrate the limb and hit the 'good stuff' (head/chest) with adequate wounding capability. Even .44Mag Glaser Silver penetrated less than 8" for me in meat (room temp expired filet mignon, plus a live goat) and water (Fackler box).

4. No analgous practice ammo. If I fire Speer Gold Dot in 9/40/45, then I can use Speer Lawman practice ammo and get the same point of impact, perceived recoil, etc. Practice rounds that duplicate the perceived recoil and exterior ballistics of the Glaser are few, far between, and in general more expensive than standard practice ammo.

The Glaser excels in a few very limited, special-application scenarios. If it were truly the 'Cat's Ass' you'd find it in the chambers/mags of more end-users. No LE agency I'm aware of general-issues any Glaser product....I'm certain they would if it were that much better than a good JHP load.

The same problems apply to MagSafe ammo. Certain MagSafe loads may penetrate marginally better than Glaser; some will actually penetrate less.

The CorBon PowRBall is a bit better than either with regards to penetration (still on the low/shallow side), and offers the same ball-profile advantage for weapons that don't care for JHPs. Still loud, pricey, and takes a back seat to better-performing JHP loads.

http://www.pmcammo.com/starfire.html have never had any issue with it use it in the wifes .380 or my 40 S&w

a co-worker of mine bought some magsafe in 9mm and some in .380. He decided to run it through his pistols to be sure it would feed etc. He has a sig 2022 and a DB380. He said that it fed fine in both weapons. He was punching paper with it and as far as I know he still has no idea what the actual "damage" capability of it is beyond the manufacturer's claims.

I've seen a number of semi autos that did not like it. Same with the Remington Frangible though those tended to have the bullet snap off when feeding. Had it happen in the CZ's enough I won't tough it.

mentioned in another post, Hydrashock. This is what many if not most of the Private Security Firms use in the state of Florida.

Golddot being the number one issued round in this state.

not sure what the Troopers are going to use now that they have gone over the the 45 GAP from the Beretta 96.