Range Report Federal HST 230 gr from G30

[lambertiana]

Today I got to test some Federal 230 gr HST from my G30, this is the standard pressure load, not the +P.

Same as before, I fired from about 10' into wet newspaper covered with two layers cotton t-shirt and two layers jeans denim. All 10 rounds recovered, as seen in the picture below:


Not very consistent. On the right in the picture are the two Gold Dot 230 gr that I shot into the same target for comparison. Surprisingly, one of them was the first Gold Dot I have ever fired into wet newspaper that did not give full expansion.

Penetration of the HST was also low. The fully expanded bullets only penetrated around 5-7", and the non-expanded penetrated up to about 11-12", but most were in the 8-10" range. The expanded Gold Dot penetrated close to 10", and the partially expanded Gold Dot penetrated to about 11" (further than all but one of the non-expanded HST). So the HST does not penetrate as far as the Gold Dot when fired out of a G30.

I also noticed that most of the HST had tumbled - the fully expanded bullets were facing base forward, and the others exhibited at least some evididence of tumbling.

For comparison, this picture shows the optimum expansion I have seen from the G30 (remember that except for the Gold Dot and Critical Defense, these are very inconsistent out of the G30 and these are only the best ones):


Top row - Winchester Ranger T 230 gr, Gold Dot 230 gr, Federal HST 230 gr. Bottom row: Taurus copper 185 gr, Hornady Critical Defense 185 gr.

 

[gofastman]

Are you suprised?
Thats about what I would expect from a "short" (as in not 5") barrel and standard pressure loads

 

[DenaliPark]

Hmm, if I was you, I'd stick with that 230 gr Ranger talon, very nice indeed...

 

[ProCarryNAustin]

My experience has been that newspaper can be and inconsistant test media. I prefer 4 layers of denim over gelatin.

 

[lambertiana]

Surprised? No. Disappointed? Yes, after all the hype I have read about this round.

Ranger Talon did not perform any better in my G30, even the +P was inconsistent. The Ranger T in the picture above was the exception, not the rule.

If I could get decent quantities of calibrated ballistic gelatin, I would use it.

I think it is very important to test actual carry loads shooting through cloth. I am amazed at the number of people on these forums who swear by the ballistic performance of modern hollowpoints that do not even expand if fired through cloth. There are not a lot of naked bad guys out there. And some of the popular loads do not even expand from a 5" barrel, at least for 45 ACP. For example, when I tested the 230 gr Hydrashok in my 1911, only one round expanded, the rest behaved like FMJ. Why pay the premium if it will not expand properly when fired through a simple cloth barrier?

 

[ProCarryNAustin]

Plenty of testing by various agencies on the http://le.atk.com/ website. I don't think it was the cloth that led to the above results. I have had this happen plenty with newspaper.