Bought a case of Federal Premium Law Enforcement 45 Auto (+P) 230-Grain HST(TM), #P45HST1 (phwew!), from AmmoMan, and shot a bunch today in my 45c. ALL ammo* I shot today performed 100% reliably in my two M&P pistols. Advertised velocity of the 230g. +Ps is 950FPS.

I tested them for expansion my usual way, thru 1-gallon plastic waterjugs, first with 2 layers of demin on the front of the first jug and then with 4 layers of terrytowel with one layer of denim front and back of the terrytowel. The HSTs performed excellently again, expanding and penetrating well in both conditions. The first bullet cracked the rear wall of jug 3 (about 18"), while each of the latter two entered jug 4 (maybe 21"?) but did not crack its rear wall.

The bullet on the left passed thru 2 layers of denim, while each of the right-hand bullets passed thru the thick-clothing wad of 6 layers. Weights were 230g. for the LH bullet and 224g. for each of the RH bullets. IMO, this performance is again excellent and earns the HSTs the reputation of the best, most-reliable popularly priced PD ammo. I now carry both of these pistol/load combos and nothing else.



Perceived recoil of the 45(c) was a little higher than that of the 40(fs), but both were well controllable and comfortable. The higher recoil of the 45 is due to its cartridge's higher kinetic energy (460 ft.-pds.*** v. the 40's 410 ft.-pds.) and also to the loaded pistols' weight difference**, 1057gm. (= 2.33 pounds) including 10 cartridges for the 45c v. 1108gm. (2.44 pounds) including 15 cartridges for the 40(fs).

FWIW, I use the 10-round full-size-pistol magazines in my 45C with X-Rite gap-fillers (from MidWay).


I LOVE these pistols and expect to carry them for a long time.

* these 45s and also 40cal. 180s, #P40SHT1 plus two practice reloads.
** both weighed with each's Streamlight LTR-4 tac. light/laser sight.
*** I never have like the abbreviation 'lb.' for pound.

Thanks for the informative thread. Nice pics,too.

I don't think those water jugs will be hurting anyone else!

__________________
Life Is A Gift. Defend it!

Those are some nasty looking bullets. Wouldn't want to be on the receiving end of those. HST of all calibers has been getting excellent reviews. I carry it in my 9mm. Think I'll pick up some .45 when I see it. Thanks for the post.

Good review and pics thank you.

I just picked up 9mm HST's 124 gr. (non +P) as I have been reading lots of good information on them. Also a few good video's on You Tube.

Thanks for the post and pictures.
They keep passing all test that I have seen, great bullet/load.

They are actually so good, just the "Standard" loadings will do the job !!

The +P just gives some, a lot more piece of mind......
and maybe a little bigger expansion on the bullet with a tad less penetration.

Nice to be able to custom fit the load to your weapon.

Ive carried this load in my les baer UTC, for a few years. Chronoed them once, 993 fps , 12 feet from the muzzle. Shot a doe with it 2 years ago behind my barn. I hit her just behind the shoulder, a bit low, from about 20 yards. She dropped right there.

Thanks for sharing. This is valuable information.

Water jugs are normally not a great medium to really test ammunition as everything tends to work. With that said, I have seen numerous .45 +P HST rounds out of people, and they generally look like a Federal ad and they drop crooks like the plague. Great load. Word of warning....the +P's are very hard on 1911's. If you are running this load in a 1911 you will need to re spring, and stay on top of them. I have found that the HK's tend to to the best at handling this load as they are set up to run very hot .45.

One thing that doesn't work well with waterjugs or ballistic jell is a bullet that gets clogged by thick cloth and then doesn't expand. I've seen lots of them including Gold Dots, Winchester bondeds, Federal inexpensive HPs and Hydra-Shoks, etc., in my testing. Three good characteristics of waterjugs are low cost, ease of use, and repeatability.

No 1911s; as indicated in my note, I'm using an M&P compact pistol.

I love to do these somewhat-technical things, and without my own results, I'd still be trusting my life to much-less-effective ammo.



BTW I almost always use 8 jugs.

The best indicator of performance at this point tends to be the FBI denim test for the reason of performance after a typical barrier that is consistent in most shootings.

Regarding the 1911, it was simply passing on information for those who might want to run this loading in one. While it is my favorite .45 load and what I have seen to be the most effective pistol round out there, it comes with a little price of being hard on guns when run in quantity, and can cause issues with some weapons that are not sprung correctly for a +P loading.

I like picture #12...........

but I am too old for that style.
I now use two saw horses and a plank for the jugs and shoot
from a chair and table with a rest.

A lot easier on my old body.

Eight jugs !! Wow..........

Hi Ed. I usually use a board that is long enough to hold all-8 jugs, but I couldn't find a pic of it. And I too would use a sawhorse if I didn't have to haul it back and forth.

I use 8 jugs because sometimes HP bullets don't expand and actually do get as far as jug 7 or 8.

The center trio are all 40-cal. Gold Dots, the upper 2 fired thru my simulation of thick clothing. See Five 40S&W and 45Auto Personal-Defense cartridges
...post #3, for details.

Again, the more I test and read, the more I love the performance of the HSTs.