Short barrel ammo

Looking for SD ammo for an M&P Shield and wanted to lean towards 147gr HP for recoil purposes and come across short barrel HST ammo. Is this short barrel ammo stuff a scam or is there benefits?

 

The powder may be optimized to get a full burn in a short barrel. The projectile may have been tested to reliably expand from a short barrel [due to lower velocity]. The round will contain flash suppressant in the powder so there is less flash out of the short barrel, where usually flash is worse from a shorter barrel. Bullet profile and/or OAL may also be designed to function reliably in a wider variety of short throated guns......to name a few.
Traditionally, 147grainers out of short 9mm barrels are slow and may not expand reliably out of a short barrel where velocities sometimes dip below the 900 range. With the specially formulated "short barrel" ammo they may have worked to remedy this problem and likely several others.

I wanted to add that I've heard the argument that 40 s&w and 45 ACP rounds expand almost all the time at 850- 900 fps which IS true, especially for the 45.
So why wouldn't the 9mm expand just as well at that velocity?
Well I'm not a scientist, but I'd assume that the larger surface area and bigger cavity of the larger diameter bullets allow them to expand more reliably at slower speeds. Being heavier and more inertia also helps that along...

 

My 150 HST was made to be shot from short barrels, and there are plenty of 147's out there being videoed where they expand from short subcompacts.

YMMV

 

Pretty well argued in this recent thread. https://www.thehighroad.org/index.php?threads/bullet-weight-for-short-barrel-9mm.911744/

 

Companies like Federal use a faster burning powder in their short barrel advertised ammo. I suspect the more bargain brand companies do not.

 

I did some research on such ammo for a J-frame .38 special and .38S&W Terrier...and found Buffalo Bore had what I wanted and got good reviews as a company as did the bullets. Did not look for 9mm stuff from them, but I will now.

 

Does your Shield have polygonal rifling? If so, you should avoid cast bullets, of which I think all Buffalo Bore are. They would seal too tightly in the bore and raise pressures dangerously.