I just don’t get why they discontinued the Glaser Safety Slugs…

[KarateHottie93]

They were more proven than just about any frangible round. They’re not the end all be all of self defense ammo of course but they served a purpose. Now every frangible round besides RIP is just that powdered metal stuff inside of a shell. I’m sure some of them work well. DRT looked impressive but there wasn’t much third party testing out there last time I checked. I live in a duplex and love the idea of frangible ammo (as I’m sure many do). It’s just unfortunate to lose one of the main options out there.

 

[Kleanbore]

Lack of penetration.

 

[Jim Watson]

Lack of sales.
True, sales were probably off because the FBI buffs kept chanting penetration, penetration, but the real reason was that they weren't selling enough to bother with.

 

[jmorris]

I don’t think things need to be useful in order for people to buy them.

In 1975 the “Pet Rock” was invented, the rocks sold for $4 ea. Guy sold more than a million of them before people decided it was stupid to pay $4 for a river rock.

So, I will so with lack of sales group.

Around here they were always avoided because they were sold in very small quantities (like rat shot rounds) and expensive vs other solid choices (no pun intended).

 

[unclenunzie]

What Kleanbore said, and to add. The industry moved toward rounds that are proven to meet objective standards. There's a very strong influence on the public's ammo choices from what police departments use. They use street proven ammo backed by standardized comparative tests. That is why Speer Gold Gots & Federal HST (and Hornady Critical Duty).

You get the point. These are mainstream, proven effective choices. Now considering how relatively expensive Glaser Safety Slugs were, along with other niche products. Can you afford to train with them?

I'm in tune with your concern about unintended consequences living in a duplex. Best thing you can do is always be aware of where you are and what is downrange. You might harden your home's entry points but I'd personally avoid boutique ammo choices in any case.

 

[Shawn Dodson]

Glaser wasn't a good round for limiting wall penetration. When it hit sheetrock the bullet jacket would swage the plastic ball on the tip in place and it would penetrate sheetrock like FMJ.

Magsafe SWAT was a cartridge specifically designed to fragment in sheetrock to limit wall penetration.

If you want to limit wall penetration buy a shotgun and load it with birdshot for the first round.

 

[entropy]

I will acertain that the .38 Spl. Glaser worked. I saw the evidence photos of a head shot at contact or near contact distance. Scrambled brains.
Supposedly the decedent committed suicide, bit the the gun was nowhere to be found. Kinda hard to ditch the weapon after scrambling your brains with a Glaser.

 

[481]

I will acertain that the .38 Spl. Glaser worked. I saw the evidence photos of a head shot at contact or near contact distance. Scrambled brains.
Supposedly the decedent committed suicide, bit the the gun was nowhere to be found. Kinda hard to ditch the weapon after scrambling your brains with a Glaser.

I would imagine that to a bit of a 'dead end' market.

OTOH, if head shots are the Glaser's only forte', their utility is extremely limited.

 

[citizenconn]

Lack of penetration.

That's what she said....
I'll see myself out. Sorry.

 

[dogtown tom]

I will acertain that the .38 Spl. Glaser worked. I saw the evidence photos of a head shot at contact or near contact distance. Scrambled brains.
Supposedly the decedent committed suicide, bit the the gun was nowhere to be found. Kinda hard to ditch the weapon after scrambling your brains with a Glaser.

So do "blanks", ask Jon-Erik Hexum and Brandon Lee.

The Glaser Safety Slug was initially popular because of the myth of bullets penetrating the skin of an airliner causing people to get sucked out. The Federal Air Marshals carried them until they found out action movies aren't real.

If Glaser Safety Slugs were better at stopping a threat, more police would carry them. They don't.

 

[Jim Watson]

M. Ayoob said the Glaser was good for a backup gun when you might have to shoot from an awkward position and accept a hit wherever you could put it.

 

[Stevie-Ray]

If Glaser Safety Slugs were better at stopping a threat, more police would carry them. They don't.

Only cop I ever saw carry them was the fictional Marion Cobretti in Cobra.

 

[CapnMac]

When a decent HP round was 25¢ a Glazer was $2--that did not much help sales.
The number of people who only ever bought the six and put them in the nightstand revolver and never bought another package did not much help sales, either.

People with a mindset of wanting to practice with their carry round until that became reflexive, basically could not afford to, so that cut into sales, too.

The reports from the street, of down jackets limiting penetration, or that actual penetration did not match the glossy advertising or reported gel testing. This, too, limited sales.

That they changed the way they loaded the stuff--size and quantity of the shot, and the composition of the capsule did not help much. Say you bought the original type and adjusted the sights to those. Then, 5-6 years' later, wait, they are different rounds, say what? That did not help sales.

But, mostly it was the costing 8x what "known good" ammo did that doomed the stuff.

 

[mokin]

I wanted to try them. I had an idea similar to the "meat target" back way before Youtube. I was more curious as how well they would function a gun. I heard that there were some reliability issues. But, as stated above, at $2.00 a piece I just couldn't bring myself to do it. Also, those steaks always ended up on the grill before I could shoot them.

 

[stanley_white]

I don’t understand why they went away either.

After FBI Special Agent Will Graham used 44 Special Glaser Safety Slugs to end the life of the serial killer known as “The Tooth Fairy” in 1986, I would have thought they would become more popular.

-Stan

 

[Leon tP]

That movie barely made over half its budget in the US. Maybe if more people watched the movie, Glaser would still be alive today.

 

[derek45]

1911 Gunsmith Ken Hallock told me one of his customers used a 45ACP Glaser

He went to arrest a biker, who wanted to fight instead.

The Officer shot him one time, hitting him in the upper chest. The Glaser failed to penetrate the leather jacket, and a few of the tiny lead BB's deflected upward, peppering the bad guy's chin.

This freaked him out, took the fight right out of him, immediately allowing handcuff, and a ride to the ER so the Doc could pop tiny lead BB's out of his skin, like popping zits.

LOL

Mr. Hallock was not a Glaser fan.

LOL

 

[shoobe01]

The Glaser Safety Slug was a clever design from the end of the Be Clever era, and died out when the Science era of terminal ballistics arrived. It penetrated very shallowly, did not penetrate (as just posted) routine intermediate things to include reasonable clothing, has construction issues resulting in increased short range ricochet risks, and generally some QA issues resulting in high variability in performance.

The bolded bit of this section from an FBI lecture in 1989 (as well as the overall principles around it) helped doom the overpriced Glaser:

Since the highest handgun velocities generally do not exceed 1400-1500 feet per second (fps) at the muzzle, reliable fragmentation could only be achieved by constructing a bullet so frangible as to eliminate any reasonable penetration. Unfortunately, such a bullet will break up too fast to penetrate to vital organs. The best example is the Glaser Safety Slug, a projectile designed to break up on impact and generate a large but shallow temporary cavity. Fackler, when asked to estimate the survival time of someone shot in the front mid-abdomen with a Glaser slug, responded, "About three days, and the cause of death would be peritonitis."

In cases where some fragmentation has occurred in handgun wounds, the bullet fragments are generally found within one centimeter of the permanent cavity. "The velocity of pistol bullets, even of the new high-velocity loadings, is insufficient to cause the shedding of lead fragments seen with rifle bullets." It is obvious that any additional wounding effect caused by such fragmentation in a handgun wound is inconsequential.
​

Also, the cost made it hard to practice with, and especially as the self-loader (auto) era arrived, people really wanted to get a box or two through their gun to check accuracy and reliability. That was a lot of work, and a whole pistol in cost to do it with Glasers so few bothered with them.

 

[jeepnik]

.45 ACP blew out a good sized hole on the opposite side of a coyote. Now granted a coyote is smaller than a human. But it's muscle tissue is probably tougher. Coyote dropped right there and only kicked a couple of times before it bled out.

 

[herrwalther]

I have a box of Glaser safety slugs somewhere in my shop. I never throw out ammo. Even if it isn't good ammo. Always figured I would do a test of it eventually.

 

[Riomouse911]

I saw plenty on the shelves in the clear plastic clamshell packages, but I honestly don’t know anyone who ever bought them. In fact, after the past 31 years and counting I have never been to, or read a crime report from, a crime scene where someone was actually shot with them.

I think the novelty-ammo prices were their undoing, as 12-plus bucks for 6 rounds was a pretty steep fare in the 1990’s.

I know some of the John Gardner(?) authored James Bond books mentioned Bond shooting some bad guys with them and had spectacular results, thats about all I can base my experience with them on.

Stay safe.

 

[mokin]

...

I know some of the John Gardner(?) authored James Bond books mentioned Bond shooting some bad guys with them and had spectacular results, thats about all I can base my experience with them on.

Stay safe.

That's what sparked my interest in the Glaser Slugs. Bond also had a HKVP70z that could fire three round burst without the stock.

 

[entropy]

I saw plenty on the shelves in the clear plastic clamshell packages, but I honestly don’t know anyone who ever bought them. In fact, after the past 31 years and counting I have never been to, or read a crime report from, a crime scene where someone was actually shot with them.

I think the novelty-ammo prices were their undoing, as 12-plus bucks for 6 rounds was a pretty steep fare in the 1990’s.

I know some of the John Gardner(?) authored James Bond books mentioned Bond shooting some bad guys with them and had spectacular results, thats about all I can base my experience with them on.

Stay safe.

Now you have. Look at post #7. They were not very pretty pictures.

 

[DeepSouth]

I recently saw a true crime type tv show where someone was killed and the killer used the Glaser safety slugs. The conclusion was that it had to be hit by a professional hit man because the only reason to use them was to KILL!!

I literally laughed out loud.

maybe that’s why they quit making them, not enough hit men around now days.
I want ask what the OP does for a living.

 

[Otto]

I just don't get why they discontinued Glaser Safety Slugs

The thing is, they were not discontinued.... 9's, 45's 10mm, 40S&W and 44Mag are still being produced and sold.

https://shopcorbon.com/index.php?route=product/category&path=9