I've been mulling this question over quite a bit lately. My normal CCW ammo has been Federal HST. In my 9mms I carry 147gr when I can find it and 124gr when I can only find that. If I ever lucked into a batch of 124gr +P HST I'd buy all I could carry! But so far the only stuff I have is regular. IIRC the standard 147 has been crono's at around 950-1000 fps. From all the research I've done the HST has a very good track record in LEO shootings in both weights. When I carry a .40 S&W I have been using 180gr HST since that's what I happen to have (got a good deal and stocked up). I think when I use that up I'll probably switch to a 155gr Federal Bonded or 165gr HST, though.
Of course, the Gold Dot has been a LE mainstay for years. From all the reading I've done all the weights of GD have been pretty effective on the street in actual shootings. Recently Underwood had a free shipping promo so I bought five 50-round boxes of 9mm, 200 rounds of it being 124gr Gold Dot +P+ driven@ 1300 fps. I think this should be pretty effective, although this is probably pushing the GD bullet right to the edge of its design limits (Underwood loads their hottest 9mm GD to nearly the same velocity as most factory .357 Sig ammo).
There are a lot of great bullet makers out there but for me it's a two horse race- the HST and the Gold Dot. I'm not interested in being a guinea pig, I will go with something with a good track record even if that means I'm "missing out" on the latest and greatest. But of course there are two issues; the first is that Federal doesn't sell the HST projectile (so far as I know of) so you need to buy their loaded ammo. And it can be hard to find at times. I have a pretty good stock of HST, plenty for CCW for the foreseeable future, but I like to practice with carry ammo occasionally and I prefer to carry the same ammo for no more than six months before I blast it at the range and replace it. On the other hand Speer does sell the GD bullet and it's loaded by at least a couple premium ammo manufacturers (Underwood and Buffalo Bore come to mind and there are probably others).
Lastly, since the only way to get HST is factory ammo it's safe to assume that the ammo is tailored to the design parameters of the bullet. I think more velocity is better ceteris paribus but only if the projectile is designed to operate within that envelope.
What do you folks think?
Of course, the Gold Dot has been a LE mainstay for years. From all the reading I've done all the weights of GD have been pretty effective on the street in actual shootings. Recently Underwood had a free shipping promo so I bought five 50-round boxes of 9mm, 200 rounds of it being 124gr Gold Dot +P+ driven@ 1300 fps. I think this should be pretty effective, although this is probably pushing the GD bullet right to the edge of its design limits (Underwood loads their hottest 9mm GD to nearly the same velocity as most factory .357 Sig ammo).
There are a lot of great bullet makers out there but for me it's a two horse race- the HST and the Gold Dot. I'm not interested in being a guinea pig, I will go with something with a good track record even if that means I'm "missing out" on the latest and greatest. But of course there are two issues; the first is that Federal doesn't sell the HST projectile (so far as I know of) so you need to buy their loaded ammo. And it can be hard to find at times. I have a pretty good stock of HST, plenty for CCW for the foreseeable future, but I like to practice with carry ammo occasionally and I prefer to carry the same ammo for no more than six months before I blast it at the range and replace it. On the other hand Speer does sell the GD bullet and it's loaded by at least a couple premium ammo manufacturers (Underwood and Buffalo Bore come to mind and there are probably others).
Lastly, since the only way to get HST is factory ammo it's safe to assume that the ammo is tailored to the design parameters of the bullet. I think more velocity is better ceteris paribus but only if the projectile is designed to operate within that envelope.
What do you folks think?
