At at hair under $0.45 per round, Freedom Munition’s new X-DEF is less than (or way less than) half the cost of most premium self-defense ammo. Designed and manufactured entirely in-house, the X-DEF projectiles are engineered to expand reliably, penetrate the FBI-specified 12 to 18 inches in ballistics gel, and retain their full weight. We’d test these claims out, but . . .
By the time the ammo arrives, Freedom Munitions will officially be TTAG’s new ammo provider (but don’t tell anyone, we haven’t announced it yet). In fact, coupon code “TTAG” is already functional on the Freedom Munitions website, good for 5% off everything site-wide. Including ammunition from the 20 other manufacturers that FM retails.
Point being, we have historically eschewed reviewing products from sponsors to avoid the appearance of any sort of bias. In this case I’d be willing to chronograph and ballistics gel test X-DEF if you, the readers, are okay with it.
From where I sit, this testing is purely objective and the data and results can be presented without any specter of opinion or subjectivity. But please do share your thoughts in the comments below!
At a minimum, X-DEF is certainly affordable enough to encourage proper testing of one’s carry load. Ultimately, reliable function in a given gun is more likely to prove the critical factor than flawlessly consistent hollow point performance.
With many self-defense ammo options running well over a buck a pop, a lot of us simply won’t put an honest couple hundred rounds through our EDCs to make sure they feed, fire, and eject our loads of choice reliably. X-DEF hits a price point that makes practice and reliability testing less painful.
At the time of this writing, X-DEF is only available in 9mm 124 grain +P flavor. But Freedom Munitions will be expanding the line into .380, .40 S&W, and .45, plus adding both 135 grain and 147 grain 9mm loads. I do believe they’ll also be selling projectiles for reloaders who want to roll their own.
More info later this week on Freedom Munitions becoming TTAG’s ammo provider of choice.