Federal HST & G2 reloads

This section is not intended to say what is good for bad self defense. You can get that from all the dudes on YouTube doing gel block, meat target, etc to form better opinion. The reason this section is called HST, G2, etc, is because the bullet is classified as defense category (the component). This is a test for accuracy and velocity using some different popular powders. Accuracy will vary. Its not a test to say what load works better in what application. We have a section coming with flash tests at night to help correlate more data for your decision making process. This site is designed to help people with "starting points" so they can make what they want, saving time and money. Not to say what is better in what application. You decide that. We got the components from American Reloading.

15 yard tests with a Venom 3 MOA red dot, using Springfield XDM with threaded barrel, which is 5.25"

Lets use some powders..

From left to right....

Shooters World D036 (Auto Pistol) (left side)

Shooters World D032 (Cleanshot)

VV N320 (middle)

Alliant Sport Pistol

Accurate #7 (very right side)

We put these in to provide wider variety for reloaders so they can see how much velocity these loads provide pulled HST 147 grain bullets, loaded to commericial 1.125 OAL. At least the 147 + P HST's we have are 1.125-1.128 or so.

147 Grain Federal HST

Interesting bullet. It has 2 canelures. That are totally hidden when you load to commercial specs of 1.125" OAL.

For pulled bullet component, these are so mint!

147 Grain showdown @ 15 YARDS

We loaded 10 in the mag, and didn't count 1 shot out of each group to eliminate any anomolies due to first shot, or human error. We are trying to understand where the load tendency is. All over an area? Or does it want to go through a dime sized area? Silhouette 5.0 grains with the Speer G2 is very accurate.

124 Grain showdown

Gold Dot and V-Crown. 2 very popular choices. Which one is more accurate? Gold dot took this one, in this gun, but its close and not enough to matter. 9 shots in .5 inch is really good for the N330.

Federal HST using several powders

Cleanshot pretty good for accuracy. 3N37 was added in with similar load to N330/N340 to show how its energy compares. These are lighter recoil loads.

And..the data

The more one tests with many powders, the more one comes to respect the VV line of powders. They are just so good.

good velocity
good case fill
very low muzzle flash
good consistency (SD)
good accuracy

Silhouette has and will continue to be a top choice with little weaknesses. Also, notice the fast powders in this test. The Sport Pistol, the D032 and the N320. Some of those are +P loads, and still, velocity is way under a commercial 147 HST +P load, which was 1080 FPS tested on this day. So any load over 1080 is more energy than the +P HST. Here are some other sample loads tested on this day, for curiosity sake.

5.25" Barrel XDM Threaded OSP

3N38 6.9 grains 147 XTP 1.100 OAL 1197 FPS

3N37 5.1 grains 147 XTP 1.080 OAL 1045 FPS

Silhouette 5.0 grains 147 XTP 1.080 OAL 1108 FPS

Blue Dot 5.8 grains 147 XTP 1.095 OAL 1115 FPS

We don't get into the ballistic tests like all the gel guys out there. We noticed G2 was relatively negative across the board, because if you don't have the barrel, and you don't do over about ~980 FPS, it may or may not expand, but over 1000, its top tier on this planet? So this is a good example, testing in 5.25" Barrel. 3 Loads here more than 1030 FPS.