1911 Carry loads: HST, Gold Dot, Fedral Hi Shok...does it matter?

Oh ya man go to the HST's. They feed very well since they have a nice round nose (in my Springfield at least) and the standard pressure is all you need, +p isn't worth the extra 40 fps or whatever it is and the expansion is CRAZY. One of my gel tests measured 1 1/8th" expansion and full weight retention. I do like the 185 gr Golden Saber and am curious how it would be in +p because in the +p round its hitting over 1000 fps and something like 511 ft lbs of energy. Old design but a great bullet. I say no to Gold Dots because the bullets set back really easy in all calibers I have tried them in which is 9mm, .40, and .45. With HST I can chamber like 4 or 5 times with no set back issues, the bullet does set back a tiny bit but if you have digital calipers just don't shoot anything lower than 1.2045..that is the shortest one I have shot and have seen them as short as 1.2055 and as long as my most recent batch at 1.2135.
 
I wanted to use Speer's 200gn GDHP +P; but ran into minor feeding problems.

I tried a few others. But the one that feeds flawlessly in my Springfield Mil-Spec is Hornady's 230gn XTP +P. So they get nightstand duty. Chronographs at 956 f/s - pretty stout round.
 
Ya I hear the +p 230 gr Critical Defense is a good round. How would you all compare it to the HST? I think the Critical Defense is more of a round aimed toward penetration than an equal of penetration and expansion. I loved the Critical Defense in 9mm because the expansion was good and penetration was great.
 
All listed are excellent rounds. You need to consider the following 3 factors in choosing defensive ammo.

First: Reliability. The gun MUST work when you need it to.

Second: Accuracy. You need the ability to place rounds on target in the vitals, This is paramount along with ability to penetrate there.

Third: Bullet performance. It is a handgun bullet, it must penetrate first to cause bleeding to induce Hypovolemic shock. Any expansion is a plus.
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I thought this was interesting. I really haven't found any quality defensive pistol ammo that wasn't sufficiently accurate out to 25 yards for consistent T Zone head shots. Accuracy is important, but at such short ranges, it seems to have been a given. The only functional issues I have had have been reliability.

So I buy for performance, then verify reliability and accuracy. If the top performer doesn't work, I move to #2 and see how it does, and so on.

On long guns, accuracy seems to be a much more significant factor as ranges are much greater.
 
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