Glaser/Magsafe

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9mmforMe

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Does anyone use these rounds for self-defense? The gelatin tests always look impressive, but thats just gelatin.

If you use this ammo...how does it work for you in your semiauto? reliable?

With a revolver (or semi), have you ever had any hangfires?

How is the accuracy?

I haven't seen these around for quite some time, but know they still has a devoted following. Heck its hard to find any ammo in Bloomington IN. What has your experience been and would you use this round for SD?
 
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No.
It is a gimmick (overpriced crap). Plenty of info available...do a search.
If you can find one LEA that uses it, I will reconsider my position. Or more likely, not.

That does not include Federal Air Marshalls, who may or may not use it under the mistaken belief that it will not puncture an aircraft fuselage...as if a .357/.40 hole will cause explosive decompression. It won't, except in Hollywood.

Whether our government has figured that out yet or not...hmmm. I wouldn't count on that. There are an awful lot of things our government hasn't figured out yet. I have pretty much had a front row seat to a lot of that, and have for the last 35 years or so... ;)
 
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They are crap. The gelatin isn't impressive. They have a lovely tendency to leave shallow, messy surface wounds that barely reach 4".

So if you're hoping your attacker will die in a week to massive infection after killing you and running, they're the perfect self defense round.
 
Crap, crap, and crap sandwich on a crap bun.

Anything worth shooting is worth shooting with real ammo
The stuff is too rare and expensive for real reliability testing
The marketing is playing up a baseless fear
Possible benefits of a light/fast projectile are negated by weak penetration

Honestly, I'd use cheap plinking FMJ before gimmick frangible ammo, and I'm a die-hard JHP proponent for anything that isn't a mousegun.
 
Can I interest you guys in some Thunder Zap? lol


Seriously, I was just wondering if there was anything redeeming about the ammo...and it seems opinions are not that high of the stuff. I must admit I used to carry the blue glasers in my .38 snub years ago. When I decided to try a cylinder out at the range I was greatly disappointed with accuracy, keyholes all over the place. I went back to a 115gr JHP that very day.
 
The basic issue is anything that "wont penetrate...."

Won't penetrate, period
bout the same as using birdshot Sometimes horrible,
sometimes it just puts your friend into the hospital and gets you mocked on late night...(cheney)

BTW, I thought airmarshels used the clay/bronze frangible stuff or fangface???
 
My conclusion is that, after having read about glaser all these years, is that if it's summertime and the intruder is naked, then it has a chance of working. But if said intruder has several layers of thick clothing, it's not going to penetrate very far.
 
I use them in my 25 auto--they feed fine--you would need to be shot at very close range to be a stopper.
Wife worked 46 years in the emergency room---all folks shot with glasers died---if they stopped the guy I have no idea/////////////////
 
I mentioned that I heard that Glasers couldn't penetrate to a friend who just bought some. So he suggested we use some 3/4 inch plywood I had laying around to test it. Well I know it isn't scientific but it went through without a problem...
 
I used to not worry too much about clothing, after all it's just soft material. Recently I was testing the functionality of some .380 reloads in my LCP. They're the 105 gr swc with 3 gr of unique. The first one penetrated through the hard cover of an old textbook and 500 pages before it stopped. I wanted to run a magazine of them through the gun before I loaded up a bunch of them. Since I was making some unwanted noise in the garage I grabbed a bag of dacron pillow stuffing to shoot through. It seemed like a good idea since we see people in the movies shooting through pillows to muffle the sound. It worked good and it helped reduce the noise, but when I was done there weren't any holes in the textbooks. That bag of fluffy fibers stopped the bullets. I bet those glaser rounds wouldn't make it through a winter coat after seeing this.
 
Ultra,

What was the caliber/weight of the glasers you shot? Were they the Blues? Silvers? We you able to recover anything?
 
Why do you call penetrating 6 drywall sheets a failure.
Would you like to get hit by one.
BTW- when they hit soft tissue they don't stay together--the little pellets spread like a
shotgun shell-all over inside your body////////////////////////////// :eek::eek:
 
all over inside your body
Click to expand...

Uh, no. Check Brassfletcher's web site - shallow penetration.

The GSS I fired were junk. The new stuff may be better, but modern JHPs are still way out in front when compared to Glasers.
 
damn it Shawn, why do you always have to come and shine the light of FACT on a good ol argument....

this is like the 4th one you have spoiled with those facts and evidence
 
Ultra said:
I mentioned that I heard that Glasers couldn't penetrate to a friend who just bought some. So he suggested we use some 3/4 inch plywood I had laying around to test it. Well I know it isn't scientific but it went through without a problem...
Click to expand...

Well, when I'm being attacked by a 3/4" thick lumber monster, I'll remember that.
What matters is performance in meat, and they are crap for that.
Adding in that they don't do the claimed "won't penetrate walls" makes it even more amusing to see the price for the stupid little blister packs of 6 "magic man-killing but non-wall-penetrating" rounds.

HOWARD J said:
Why do you call penetrating 6 drywall sheets a failure.
Click to expand...

because the whole point is not penetrating walls!

brassfetcher said:
Having evaluated this particular line of Safety Slug against standardized barriers and ballistic media, a
few conclusions may be made. First, the penetration of the tested round against a bare gelatin block is wholly
inadequate when viewed in light of the FBI minimum penetration depth of 12î in calibrated ballistic gelatin.
This is exacerbated by the fact that the tested block was out-of-calibration, in that a steel BB impacting at 590
ft/sec is to penetrate to 8.5cm in a ëperfect blockí. Due to the multiple sub-projectiles of the tested bullets, a
correction procedure was not undertaken to determine the penetration depth that this ammunition would achieve
in an ideal block. In any case, the penetration would be less in an ideal block, due to the lower-than-standard
viscosity of the tested block.

Perhaps the point of greatest interest is the failure of the bullet to reduce penetration when fired through
interior walls, as might occur in the event of a complete miss during a defensive shooting event inside a
structure ñ lethality of the round is actually increased by the presence of an intervening interior wall.
Click to expand...

I'll leave it to everyone else curious to open a new tab, go to google.com, and type in "brassfetcher glaser" to get the large report.
The stuff doesn't do either of the things it claims to do!
 
Caliber was 38. Don't know if it was blue or silver and the bullet was not recovered.
 
Shawn Dodson = thank you.

I have carried them for over 30 years and do a GSS/HP/GSS/HO/GSS/HP in magazines as well as in a cylinder.

Best of both worlds imnsho.
 
No. They are basically lead fragments mixed with frozen bubble gum crammed into a shell casing.

I cannot understand, even a little bit, the notion of mixing loads in any gun you are trusting to save your life. Note in the above provided link, it said they didn't penetrate far enough into the chest cavity to incapacitate. Now, you are looking at someone trying to get into your car door, you are boxed in, and you need to shoot through the door. Are you going to try to remember which bullet is next to fire, and if it's the wrong one, are you wasting the others until you get to it? Can you keep track when you are fighting for your life? What if your attacker is wearing leather?

Just because you have been doing it for a long time doesn't mean it's a good idea.
 
I've seen firsthand the effectiveness of the Glaser in a .44 Spl. The attacker was swinging a heavy belt buckle on a belt at the victim's head. The shot was horrible. It was fired from waist level with the gun pulled back into the victim's waist area to prevent his attacker from grabbing it. If it was any other type of ammunition it would have exited after doing only slight damage.

The attacker was standing at a 45 degree angle to the victim and the round struck about an inch to the (victim's) right of his navel. The victim was blocking the belt buckle and ducking at the moment that he fired the shot. I'm sure that any standard HP or FMJ would have travelled through about 4" of skin and fat and then exited a few inches in front of the victim's right hip.

But the Glaser upset and the pellets spread out in a spectacular fashion. One of them missed the aortic arch by less than an inch and one of them travelled down into the attacker's femoral artery, which it penetrated. The attacker literally "froze" (meaning that he halted his swing) in mid swing. He staggered away, about 20', collapsed and later passed away.

I don't think that any other round would have stopped him given that poor shot placement and the angle involved.
 
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