January 12, 2023

I asked a couple of our favorite instructors and friends to test out Liberty Ammunition’s Civil Defense and Ultra-Light 9mm +P rounds and give us their thoughts on them. These rounds are incredibly lightweight, which makes them attractive for EDC, but how do they perform?

AG & AG National Conference Instructor Brian Quick and Sonny Kuo tested both types of rounds. Here’s what they had to say about them:

The Civil Defense rounds appear to have a nickel-plated case and the Ultra-Light has a composite case that is also nickel-plated. Both types of rounds use 50 grain bullets with a deep hollow point and had a whopping 2040 fps listed on the box. Needless to say, these rounds are moving!

With 50 rounds of each, we tried shooting them at various distances between 7 to 25 yards. Our test pistols were a Staccato P, Staccato C2, and a Glock 34.

At 25 yards, both rounds grouped about 1″ to 1.5″ and was reliable through all 3 pistols. As we moved in closer, we started to focus more on the felt recoil and started speeding up our shots. While the recoil still felt sharp, it certainly didn’t feel like other +P rounds we have shot in the past. All of our guns are equipped with red dots, and we were able to track the red dot the entire time as we sped up our cadence of fire. This came as a surprise to us because we expected the rounds to recoil significantly, especially at 2040 fps. The rounds were easy to shoot and almost felt like shooting 115 grain ammo with a lighter load.

Liberty Ammunition advertises their rounds being lighter and this was especially true with the Ultra-Light. With our magazines loaded, they felt significantly lighter than the normal 147 grain Federal HST rounds that we typically use.

We didn’t have any ballistics gel on hand to test the hollow point bullet, but the 9mm performed well in terms of accuracy and reliability. Overall, it was easy to shoot through all three of our test pistols, and we didn’t observe any issues with reliability.

There you have it: Liberty Ammunition’s Civil Defense and Ultra-Light 9mm +P rounds were comfortable for me in my EDC. The lightweight rounds made a difference in my Glock 48 with all-day carry. More importantly, Liberty Ammunition performed well on the range. Brian and Sonny tackled distance, speed, and accuracy — and these rounds passed the test!

Robyn Sandoval