Federal HST 's have always amazed me. Such huge beautiful expansion and yet they penetrate the furthest, or close to the best penetration in nearly any test I have seen. Nice test Northwoods
Thanks, the HST is my currant carry round. One reason is that I was able to find it in 50 round boxes! I carry an older 9mm pistol that is 8+1, and two additional magazines for a total of 25 rounds. Twenty-round boxes do not appeal to me, and cost more to package, so more $ per cartridge.
The Golden Saber still performs acceptably in my opinion. Of course I'm somewhat biased as I still have a bunch of it backing up my HST. Thank you for the test.
Great test. HST wins overall, as expected, but I would carry any of the three without too much concern about terminal effect. Early during the pandemic all I could find was the USA Ready load and after testing it myself, figured it would do the job. The Golden Saber load is hard on rattlesnakes.
Yeah during that craziness all i could find was sig Vcrown and of course I bought some because it was better than nothing but as soon as things started coming back to the shelves, i stocked up on HST and GoldDots. I also really like the Critical Duty rounds. Both 124&135 +p. Anything is better than nothing though and if that means i have to load up ball rounds, I'm loading up ball rounds lol.
Just curious, how far were you from the chronograph? Seeing such high velocities from so short of a barrel, and the error readings, might be a result of standing too close. I stand so that the muzzle is a measured 12 feet from the chrony. From my 4” Taurus G3 that same HST ammo gives an average velocity of 1198 fps. Enjoyed the video, excellent performance from all three rounds.
I've recently tested all these through very different Protocol (well hst wad standard pressure) I'm assuming that's an older hotter box you have there. All good from a short barrel. Hst always hard to beat though Punch comes close I did that Meat & Bone test already
I do buy when I find deals and store them. I know HST has changed over the years. Tnoutdoors9 did a test a while back on, I think it was the 147 but it could a been the 124, on how they changed the bullet itself to expand less and penetrate more. This particular box I don't know when I bought it.
I've put about 100 rounds total through so far. Fits comfortably in my hand, which is not the case for a lot of the micro-compacts. Factory sights are just white 3-dots, but easy to pick up. I like the trigger a lot, right out of the box. I always change out Glock triggers for example, but to me this one has a crisp break. So far I like it.
