Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Handguns Fed HST

Was looking for a couple of .45 hydra-shoks and started stumbling across forum posts talking about a FED HST.

Can't find this ammo in stock, and the Federal site doesn't even list it, what gives? Is it only available to LEO?


Is the HST really superior to the 230 hyra-shok?

HST is probably the best bullet available. A few local shops have it, or you can find it sometimes at places like ammunitiontogo.com and sgammo.com. It outperforms pretty much everything, with 2nd place usually going to the Ranger Ts. Shoot one of those 230 grain HSTs into a few water jugs and pull that slug out...it's a beautiful thing.

and to answer your question, they are much better than hydroshoks. There are quite a few tests out there you can find if you do some google searches that show the performance through real world scenarios - barriers, clothes, etc.

It is outstanding handgun ammunition. It is marketed to law enforcement but can be found once in awhile. It is all I use.

i have found it at ammunitiontogo.com out of texas, I think

Ron, do you use it? If so, do you use it exclusively when carrying or just when you happen to have some?

The HST is new technology, the Hydra-Shok is old technology. I really like the new stuff like the Federal HST, Winchester Ranger T and Speer Gold Dot and carry those most often in my personal guns. With that said, I have confidence that some crusty old dude perforating a bad guy with old school Hydra-Shok can get the job done in a businesslike manner!

It�s a very good bullet design, probably a little superior to the Hydra Shok. The HST is kind of a re-worked PMC Starfire (Tom Burczynski designed both the Hydra Shok and Starfire).

Agreed. The HST is a superior bullet to the old Hydra-Shok. I wouldn't say it performs any better than the GDHP or Ranger Talon, they are fairly equivalent in testing I have seen and reviewed.

I found a place called Tactical Defensive Solutions that is selling the HST ammo. 124 9mm is listed as 26.00 per 50 round box. That sounds pretty cheap for "state of the art" defensive ammo.

Ernie

That's a heckuva price.

It says "Tactical" on the box, so you know it has to be good......

It looks like they have 45, 40 and 9s in stock.

Ernie

I am kind of a bullet junky, and bought quite a few boxes of it a few years ago mainly because of the bullet, and I do carry it in several .45's, but i wouldn't say exclusively.
there are a lot of good bullets out there, the barnes line are tweaking me these days as an example.
I have heard the high speed, small diameter argument vs. large bullet, lower velocity for years. And by bias i like big fat bullets. On a unrelated pistol, i did some cast bullets recently for the .45 colt the .270saa grain bullet, but in a hollowpoint. Got up to the magic inch in expansion. I pulled the following off another site referencing some testing done a few years ago. You might like looking at the expansion numbers:
Federal HST 45 ACP � 1.043�/.452� = 2.31 times larger than its original diameter
Federal HST 40 S&W � 0.945�/.40� = 2.36 times larger than its original diameter
Federal HST 9mm � 0.891�/.356� = 2.5 times larger than its original diameter

Bullet Caliber/Weight Penetration Expansion Retained Weight

Federal HST 45 ACP... 230 gr... 12.75�... 1.043�... 100.96%
Winchester SXT 45 ACP... 230 gr... 12.5�... 0.795�... 100.61%
Remington GS 45 ACP... 185 gr... 14.0�... 0.730�... 100.38%

Federal HST 40 S&W...180 gr... 11.5�... 0.945�... 101.78%
Winchester SXT 40 S&W...180 gr... 13.5�...0.658�... 92.67%

Federal HST 9mm...147 gr...11.5�... 0.891�...101.5%
Federal HST 9mm...124 gr...11.75�...0.839�... 101.05%
Winchester SXT 9mm...127 gr...16.0�...0.718�...94.49%

Heavy Clothing
All bullets performed well in Heavy Clothing. Federal HST again demonstrated the
designed expansion characteristics and outperformed all tested rounds for expansion.

Bullet Caliber/Weight Penetration Expansion Retained Weight

Federal HST 45 ACP 230 gr. 14.0� 0.850� 99.65%
Winchester SXT 45 ACP 230 gr. 12.5� 0.773� 101.26%
Remington GS 45 ACP 185 gr. 14.25� 0.704� 102.22%

Federal HST 40 S&W 180 gr. 13.0� 0.788� 101.56%
Winchester SXT 40 S&W 180 gr. 14.0� 0.757� 91.89%

Federal HST 9mm 147 gr. 13.75� 0.689� 102.38%
Federal HST 9mm 124 gr. 12.0� 0.709� 102.26%
Winchester SXT 9mm 127 gr. 13.5� 0.684� 97.48%

I have kidded for years i wanted a round then left a hole you could shove a golf ball through.
the cmbination of penetration and expansion says it all.
I have never had to shoot anybody, close, but no cake. On the other hand i have a number of friends that have. Any pistol/revolver is a imperfect tool, and thus the interest in the bullets.
We have come a LONG way since the 70's when this stuff became important to me.

ammunition to go gets some interesting stuff in inventory.
A few years ago I had a long conversation with a F.B.I. guy about a ankle hideout 9mm he had. He showed the ammo in it, and I eventually found it at ammunition to go. Think a 9mm 115grain round running at about 30%over sammi specs as i remember, or at .357sig velocities.

I might add every area has it's own situation. Here it's a combination of a huge metro area, but real close is wilderness and the narco drug routes out of mexico. Like 40miles from the state capital. You just don't know what you are going to run accross.
I have seen bureau of land management guys suited up looking like they just stepped out of iraq. Thus the choice of what to carry, while variable, is important.

Thanks. I am going to look into the stuff. I've been kind of in a rut for the past ten or fifteen years probably. I'd been stocked up and satisfied with the loads I was running. I need to look closer at some of the newer developments.

I'm curious, just a few years ago the Hydra Shok had the reputation of being one of the best, now some refer to it as an obsolete round. It seems unanimous, the HST is a better round, with maybe the exception the Hydra Shok can out penetrate it.

That being said, exclude the HST and the Ranger, where does the Hydra Shok stand amongst the other bullet choices? Would it still be considered one of the top five choices for PD, or has the competition really caught up and passed the HS?

Here's a few things you might find interesting.

This link and the ones at the bottom of the page
http://www.btfh.net/shoot/bullet-test-2.html

This guy on youtube makes some great ammo vids. These links are for 9mm stuff - the .45 is even better.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wY_cJEDxxEI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i67WILeK66Y

These are also one of the reasons I sold my .40s. These things are serious. I've read everything and anything I could find on the subject and almost always the HST comes out ahead. Hydrashoks were good for their time, but now there are much better options. HST, Gold dot, Ranger Ts.

If you do have a .40, this is a great deal.

http://www.sgammo.com/product/feder...55-grain-government-contract-ammo-xm40hb