Federal 135 Hydra-Shok 9mm?

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556A2

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Has anyone had experience/info with this round? I got a box this weekend, and haven't been able to get out and do some informal ballistic tests with it. I have already checked out ammolab.com, but they did not have this weight tested.
 
I haven't tested these rounds . I have shot a box of them , the only thing i can say is that they are VERY mild , in recoil terms .
 
Well, this may not be what you want to hear, but ballistically speaking it's about the wimpiest 9mm load made. Also generally overpriced and with too much muzzle flash. The plastic box is is the best thing going for it. It's like Federal said "Let's make a load for each of the common calibers with a lot of muzzle flash and reduced performance, but instead of calling it "reduced performance" we'll call it "reduced recoil". And we'll put it in a pretty plastic box and charge a premium price for it. Because of the price, uninformed people who know nothing about ballistics will think it's something special." :confused: Federal makes some very good loads, and the Hydra-Shok bullet is well thought of in their regular loadings, but I just don't get the Personal Defense line.
 
I pretty much agree with the above statement . I have shot 9mm
corbons , Remington +P's and others , and they all seemed snappy. But these Hydra Shok PD rounds were about the weakest 9mm loads i've ever fired . I remember thinking how can a load that feels less than a standard 9mm target load , be an effective defense round :confused: Just my opion
 
All Hydra-Shok bullets suck.
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A 20 year old design with miserable performance in both lab tests and actual shootings. One of the great deceptions of the gun industry... :mad:
 
I shot a couple boxes of the PD Hydra-Shoks and never bought any more. Biggest waste of $24 on ammo I've spent. I have Remington Golden Sabers now. I kept the neat Federal box though...
 
for what it is worth

I just had Federal Rep EMail me and say that none of their 9MM Hydra-shocks are +p.
 
No but there are 9mm Hydrashok +P+, I know, because that's what I use.

Mild for a +P+ but still plenty punchy. This is a good round, so is the 155gr .40 and the 230gr .45, avoid every other Hydrashok.

Newton
 
Thanks again for the heads up again, the local gunshop here only has the non +p Silvertips and Starfires (Don't know if they are +P or their performance) I'll check out ammolab again for more possible loadings.
 
Just the facts

From an article in the Feb 97 American Rifleman by Charles E. Petty:

Walther P99

135 PDA/HS 1067 fps, 341 ft lbs, 5.37 recoil energy
124 HS 1120 fps, 345 ft lbs, 5.13 recoil energy
147 HS 925 fps, 279 ft lbs, 4.75 recoil energy

Bare gel 11.5 inches, .72 caliber
Heavy cloth 14.5/.60

From other sources for comparison:

115 Silvertip 10/.62 bare, 11.8/.58 heavy
115 +P CorBon 8.95/.52(frag) bare, 10.2/.61 heavy cloth
147 HS 13/.62 bare, 15/.57 heavy cloth

The 135 PDA/HS doesn't look so bad to me. There is a 135 +P HS for LEO BTW.
 
Hey, mso, you ever seen a naked bad guy? ;)

The Hydra-shok design works fine until it comes in contact with some cloth. Then it clogs and acts like FMJ.

"Bare gel" tests don't really mimic the real world because everybody in our society wears clothing. If your from Tahiti or something, I'll just keep my mouth shut, though. :D
 
Actually, Yes, I have! ;)

And I wasn't in Tahiti either... watch out where the Huskies go, don't you eat that yellow snow...

Reading is FUNdamental?

Results for HS ammo through FBI spec heavy cloth up there too.

Have seen enough to know the HS expands just fine through cloth in real bad guys and hide on game/varmints when Fed does it right. Everybody does it wrong now and again. Bad lots of ammo, any ammo, will fail to open, as will some rounds from good lots of any ammo from time to time.

In the entire 40 round FBI test series, the Fed 147 HS had the same average expansion as the Fed 115 +P+ JHP... through heavy cloth better than the old Speer "Flying Ash Tray" 200 gr .45 ACP JHP.

Have seen 9mm HS pulled from real bad guys with clothes and road kill as big/bigger than some .45 ACP GD/GS... Imagine that?

Sometimes, life's a beach? ;)
 
I'm just going off of information from people who do a whole heckuvalot more bullet analysis than I do (both lab tests and actual shootings)... :)

www.ammolab.com


Check out the forum there, as well.

FWIW, Federal reserves all of the good stuff for Law Enforcement officers in the same way that the Ranger "T" Series ammo from Winchester is slated for LEO-Only sales.

The good stuff from Federal is the "Tactical" line, and it is what I have in my carry gun.
 
AmmoLab?

Over there as Broken Arrow... ;)

Testing and war stories are fun, but see/hear enough of 'em w all the variation and all ya really conclude is...

Ya never really know what your bullet is gonna do from your gun in your bad guy? Or how they are gonna react to whatever that is? All we can try to do is stack the deck in our favor as much as possible ahead of time?

What the bullet does is pretty far down on the list of things I try to stack... :)
 
mso,
You're acting like a Pool Shark then. Making me feel like I have a contribution to this discussion, and then dropping the bomb on me... :D ;) :p
 
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