I am going to purchase some Federal HST for my edc Shield.
Federal has 124 gr. and 147 gr. offerings in 9mm.
What are the pros and cons between the two weights? Besides recoil.
I currently carry 147 gr. SD ammo.
Thanks in advance.

I watched shootingthebull410's ammo quest on YouTube and either of those offerings did a great job. Surprisingly the Winchester defend also did great and it's pretty cheap.

I find the performance of the 124g to be better out of a shorter barrel. Velocity is critical in both penetration and maximum expansion. Standard pressure is also better in a subcompact as there the round doesn't spend enough time in the barrel to take advantage of the +P and doesn't gain any significant velocity while causing greater recoil. HST 124g is arguably the best defensive round available.

The 147 grain 9mm ammo was developed specifically to be sub-sonic, for suppressed weapons. It turned out to be surprisingly accurate as well. It is a tad heavy-slow for my taste, but whatever floats your boat.

Never knew that. Thanks for the info. I've always leaned toward 124g but now I know I've been right to do so.

I prefer the extra 23 grains of the 147 grain load. From the reviews I've read either is a fine choice.

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Here's the update report from Lucky Gunner.

http://www.luckygunner.com/labs/self...llistic-tests/

The Luckygunner report showed excellent performance of the Federal HST147gr out of a short barreled pistol. Regarding recoil, I can not ever really notice much difference between 124 and 147. I shoot both in competition. If anything the heavier bullet will have less "snappy" recoil due to the lower velocity.

Thank you everyone for your replies.
Saudade, thanks for the link.

147's have served me very well!

I use Federal HST 124gr on my single stacks and 147gr HST on my double stacks.

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Shield 45

I have done a ton of testing, I will look and see if I can find the thing I wrote up after. I shot through all kinds of stuff.

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I tend toward 147g in FMJ and JHP when I can get it at a good price, since I have a suppressor for my larger 9's, and like to keep things standard. I bagged 700 rounds of Speer gold dot JHP 147 nickel plated in two ammo cans as a government contract overrun at Mass Ammo for $180 shipped. That stuff is GOOD. May never see any more.

FMJ 147 has been ~ $14.00 / 50 lately at local stores and my LEO distributor, so I've been stocking up a bit. I'm seeing shelf stock decline since Sunday night ...

It was not winchester defend , it was plain old winchester hollow point 124gr, a different animal, hard to find inexpensive and real accurate.

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If you are talking the LE versions, 124gr is great, in my hands 147gr is also great and is more accurate (2" circle at 15 yards, in 2 hand hold), in my hands also the 124gr +P is a real handful, it is quite a bit sharper in the recoil department. It is clean burning and as others have said here, is the clear winner of shootingthebull410 excellent evaluations. it 147gr is what I carry in my PD mags (PS, I also carry a mag of 124gr fmj if I feel the need for something with more penetration.

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Regards from THE Old Fart

True but the same test showed the 124g penetration was 3" more with exactly the same expansion.

He most certainly tested the Winchester defend in 9mm...

Ammo Quest 9mm: Winchester Train and Defend 147gr Ammo Test - YouTube

So the 147's must have more down range energy, BUT the 124's get 3" more penetration, because of higher velocity?

Yup pretty much.

I tested both 124 and 147 HST, the 147 worked better in my shield. I also felt the 147 were a little softer to shoot.

I think you need to test and shoot both to find what is best for your gun.


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147gr is the better choice. It's arguably the best 9mm round out there.
Check out the reviews at tnoutdoors9:

tnoutdoors9
- YouTube

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....Gun control is not the answer. Gun control is the question. The answer is NO.....

According to Luckygunner's testing the 147 HST penetrates less by 3" and expands the same as the 124.

If you want as professional and as knowledgeable an opinion as possible, Dr. Gary Roberts publishes and updates "the list" on the Internet. He makes his living advising, testing, reviewing, etc service ammunition for police and military entities. He has posted that he publishes "the list" in acknowledgement that many small police forces simply do not have the budget and means to pay for the testing, consulting, etc that large departments have. It is his attempt at helping out, in effect.

"the list" are the loads in the various service calibers that have been found to pass the FBI's terminal performance criteria and with solid performances in OIS incidents.

Federal's 9mm HST flavours, both in standard and +P pressures, and in both bullet weights, make "the list" for police use. Roberts says his personal choice for carry is the 147 grain standard pressure HST.

I would suggest to you that whichever weight HST feels best to you and performs best in your Shield would be the way to go. Being as it is a Shield, I would suggest you consider trying Barnes 115 TAC-XP. It is also on "the list" approved for police service use, and you might find the lighter bullet weight advantageous in a small pistol the size of the Shield.

I carry the 147 gr standard pressure load in my Browning High Power, and the 115 grain Barnes in the Shield, when I'm carrying that pistol. I wouldn't lose any sleep over ammo if I were forced to carry any of the 9mm loads on the list of approved service ammo, rather than make my own choices.

But whatever you choose out of the HST line will be just fine.

The different results may be that FBI tests out of barrels over 4" and Luckygunner tested out of a 3.5". I carry a 3.5" so will go with 124. Really can't go wrong with any HST. I'll still use my 124 but certainly will buy the 147 if it's all they have or the price is right.

It's far more likely that Luckygunner (and other amateur Web testers) is not using properly calibrated ballistic gelatin. Aside from the differences that have been found between Clearballistics gelatin and real ordinance gelatin, I also do not see any photos that show calibrating BBs were used in any of their tests.

The differences between proper ordinance gelatin and the much more photogenic Clearballistics (and similar) gelatin have been noted for quite a while. With 5.56 rounds (for example), there was about 20% more penetration in the Clearballistics gelatin than in real ordinance gelatin. Furthermore, this difference is not linear and consistent as caliber increases, bullet weight increases, etc.

I'll let Dr. Roberts have the last word when he was asked about these alternate testing medias as well as barrel length:

There are NO viable wound ballistic test facilities that rely on synthetic gel for terminal performance testing; might be some good reasons for that...

and:

For 9 mm, the results are essentially identical with barrels from 3.5-5", you get more variation in lot to lot differences than with barrel length.

In May of this year, Federal introduced their HST "Micro" round - developed specifically for short barrel handguns.

The 9mm round is 150grain! I purchased and tested the 9mm round (for my Shield) and the .380 (99gr) round for my Bodyguard.

They both performed admirably.

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