Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Handguns 147 grain HST

I went down to our hunting camp this past Saturday and decided after all the work was done I’d do a little informal testing. I shot a Federal 9mm 147 grain HST into milk jugs filled with water. I purposely shot it out of my shortest barreled 9mm (my Ruger EC9s with a 3.1” barrel). It penetrated 3 jugs and put a hole in the 4th. This is the bullet I retrieved from the 3rd jug.

Ron

It's a good round.

Boy that sure is pretty.

Lucky Gunner.com has done the same thing with ballistic gelatin, it might save you some money to go look at their website and see what's working well (your load IS working well in their tests). There's a lot there to digest, but it's worth the look.


https://www.luckygunner.com/labs/self-defense-ammo-ballistic-tests/#45ACP

Looks like that will work for sure. Wondering what the OP's velocity was with that short barrel? I'm going to be loading a few hundy 147gr XTP's here in a bit. Those HST's look impressive though.

That’s picture perfect

BSA, I didn’t take my chronograph with me. I chronographed it from my Sig P365XL (3.7” barrel) a while back. It was about 960 fps. I’m guessing about 925ish fron the 3.1” barrel. Next time I’ll take the chrono.

Ron

Looks picture perfect.

147 grain HST’s have been my carry ammo the past few years. I don’t know that it’s any better than the Speer 124 grain +p Gold Dots that I carried before but I’ve been gradually shooting more 147 grain subsonic ammo in other guns and loading for them around it that I switched to that weight for carry ammo.

I was going to say "purdy" but you beat me to it. That's my current carry load but as I rotate out rounds I've had loaded for a couple of years I need to start testing the batch of +P 124 Gold Dots that are in queue.

They look almost as good

Thanks Ron, I appreciate the info! I just bought a 365XL last week and really like it. So your info helps quite a bit. A 147 JHP running at 960 fps is a hammer. Your picture of the mushroom is pretty cool. I was watching some videos on penetration tests with these bullets and they look just like the one you pictured. They look like they perform very reliably. TWR's picture of the 124 gold dot looks pretty good too.

That's my next one as well. I have a 365 now and the XL with the RDS is next in line.

In 1996 I retired after 27 years from one police dept and went to another. They issued me a Sig P226 in 9mm with Federal 147gr Hydra-Shok. We had one officer involved shooting with that load. A subject was stabbing his girlfriend in the parking lot with a knife. The responding officer double tapped the subject, center-mass. He died but sadly the girlfriend expired from her fatal stab wounds. The recovered bullets expanded and looked similar to the ones shown in this thread. The load was non-+P. They worked.

Gumfighter, I retired in 2018 after 33 years as an LEO in Columbus Ohio. I carried an H&K USP .45 for a while in the Narcotics Tactical Unit loaded with 230 grain Hydra-shocks. I shot a pit bull down through the chest at about 3 feet. The bullet went through the dog and the floor. We found it on the basement floor unexpanded. I was shocked to say the least. We later went to single stack H&K 45 handguns loaded with 230 grain HST. Columbus went to M&P .40’s with 180 grain HST in 2006. They worked very well. Now they carry M&P 2.0 9mms loaded with 147 grain Gold Dot G2 ammo. Although tests on YouTube show less than stellar results with the G2, Columbus has had good results in actual shootings.

Ron

I purchased a bag of these bullets from a member here during Covid. They were pulled, I haven't loaded them yet but looking forward to doing so.

I retired last June after 32 years of LE service. In the middle years I carried an M&P 9mm with 147 gr. HST +P. I also had to shoot a pit bull at a meth location that unfortunately for both of us grabbed me by the calf of the leg and started putting the hurt on. I shot him through the top of the head, the bullet traveling through his skull and exited the bottom of his neck. The bullet was later dug out of the ground and it was expanded just like the one above. I shot quite a few crippled up deer that were struck by vehicles with that load also but never went looking for the bullets. Most were headshots, a few broadside and all the deer died with no drama.

When we were issued Glock 22's they were loaded with 180 gr. Gold Dot. I was a patrol supervisor, one night one of my guys was sitting in a grocery store parking lot finishing a report and heard loud voices and looked up in time to see two guys yelling at each other. One of the guys pulled a .380 and emptied it into the other, killing him. Turned out they were neighbors and had an ongoing property line dispute that had been to court recently. My deputy hit the lights and started driving across the lot toward the scene and the shooter jumped in a 3/4 ton truck and tried to leave. A short pursuit took place with the truck ramming the deputies vehicle several times. Sometime during this mess the deputy ended up on foot with the shooter crashing his truck into some parked cars while trying to run over the deputy. One of the shots fired by the deputy went through the back window of the truck, struck the headrest of the driver's seat, penetrated the headrest and hit the bad guy in the back of the skull. The bullet cracked the skull and killed the driver but get this - the base of the bullet was visible in the shaved scalp and flush with the exterior of the skull. The bullet was removed later by the medical examiner by grasping it with two fingers and plucking it out of the skull from the outside.

One of our detectives was trying to arrest a dude on warrants and went to the guys girlfriend's house to find him. The front door was open and the bad guy was on a sofa across from the front door. The detective was standing behind the outside wall of the apartment peeking inside talking to the bad guy when the dude lifted a 9mm and started shooting. A 115 gr. FMJ round penetrated the wall of the apartment and struck the detective in the thigh. The bullet didn't penetrate but raised a welt and the nastiest bruise for several weeks.

I'll stop telling war stories but suffice it to say that any LE, EMT or ER nurse has seen some weird bullet stuff if they have been on the job awhile.

I enjoy the anecdotes guys. I guess the real thing that matters is shot placement. I do have faith in HST bullets though.

Ron

When I joined Detroit PD in 1969 they issued S&W Model 10 38 spl with 5" barrel and 158 gr round nose lead bullets. We had to carry all lead or FMJ in our revolvers. We could carry our privately owned S&W or Colt revolver 38 or larger caliber if we qualified with it. The first week on the job I bought a S&W model 28 357 and carried 158 lead SWC mag loads . A year later I bought a used 4" Model 29 44 mag.from a detective. Carried cast 250 gr Keith SWC loads with 21 grs of 2400. It really lit up an alley at night and had great penetration in both cars and flesh. In 1989 the department went to Glock 22 40 cal. We carried issued dept ammo 200 gr FMJ flat point. Very poor choice. The shootings we had with it were very poor stoppers. If we worked a special unit such as Narcotics we could carry 1911's 45, 9mm browning HP, etc, but still ammo was all lead or FMJ. Again not the greatest ammo. A couple of my officers got in a shoot out one night next to a dope pad. They were in plainclothes and the subject ran out and popped a few rounds at the officers, one officer carrying S&W 25 in 45 colt fired at the subject and he dropped right down to the ground. The impact knocked the subject out of his shoes. The shot hit him in the head. I was only a block away and when I got there I checked with my officers and checked the Perp. He was breathing and there was blood from the suspect's wound but no brain matter. The 250 gr swaged lead R-P factory round nose did not penetrate the bone but traveled under the skin, around the head to the other side where it was a lump under the skin. He lived. Shotguns with slugs worked good, better than buckshot. We had Department issued 45 cal Thompson MG's in some of our 4 man cruiser units and , M-1 30 cal carbines , Winchester 94 30-30's, pump 12 ga shotguns for patrol. When doing a building search in dark warehouse carrying a Rem 870 pump shotgun with one hand and an old D cell flashlight with the other was piss poor tactics.Try pumping another round into the chamber with a flashlight in your left hand. I preferred the M-1 30 cal 5 lb carbine. 20 round mag, semi-auto and combat proven reliability and you can hold the flashlight with your left hand, against the fore stock. Oh well, the good old days.

Over time I’ve settled on 147 HSTs in the BHP and the 124 GDHPs in the P365s. Mainly based on recoil difference and results of the gel tests. Both work well in gel but a bit more MV in the 147 HST in the longer barrel seems like a good idea.

I'm loving mine man. it shoots surprisingly well. Not nearly as good as my new CZ P01, but it does better than I had anticipated. I was lucky enough to get to try it out before I bought it. Another good deal I could not pass up. I waited and watched until just the right one came out, and that is the one I got. It has the cheap Romeo Zero on it right now, but it shoots great with it. I will eventually trade it out for the right Holosun. Great thread guys.