Indeed. It wasn't very long ago that I asked a friend, who is a retired police chief, police firearms trainer, and certified armorer what he would recommend for 9mm ammunition (I was considering buying a 9mm after decades of carrying 1911s in .45 ACP). He named three, one of which was Golden Saber -- and he specified NON-bonded.
Yeah, as you start going outside and listening to other agencies at the state and local levels, the non-bonded JHP's have usually done well in actual shooting incidents.
Once we were finally able to get away from the former state contract budget W-W or Rem 147gr old style JHP's (think USA or Express), I've seen the 9mm inventory include W-W T-Series (127gr +P+, 124gr +P & 147gr), Rem GS 124gr +P and Fed 147gr HST (standard pressure). I'm not fussy about which of them I used, or continue to use. The current state contract out here includes both Federal and Speer (both being Vista companies), with end users having the choice of either 124gr +P or 147gr in both lines, since they all passed the state's demanding ballistic testing. I was just told that the previous 1 month ETA for deliveries is no longer in effect. Now it'll take whatever it takes. A friend of mine told me that one of his duty ammo orders from March just arrived. If you need it
now, you shop among the LE vendors in your region to find someone with something from one of the major American ammo makers in their warehouse right now, and available for delivery within the week.
FWIW, it sounds like the Fed HST is usually seeing the nod ... because it's less expensive than the equivalent Speer rounds. Approx $250/1000rd case v. $285/1000rd case, both 124gr +P & 147gr, which can start to add up when you're ordering 10K, 20K or 50K rounds at a time,
and you also need to set aside enough money to spend on your
other pistol calibers, as well as rifle training/duty & frang ammo, Tasers (at about $900/ea), force-on-force gear and dye-marking ammo, etc.
Just ordering a case at a time? Pick whatever you like, for why ever you like it, and don't worry about the not-quite-a-nickel difference in cost per round. ($0.2495 v. 0.2848 per rd) Naturally, if you can get the same ammo at retail store shelf pricing, even in half-size commercial boxes, the prices begin to reach a low orbit.
Maybe we'll start to see an improvement in ammo availability about the time we see widespread availability of a vaccine.
This can make the less costly Ball training lines seem pretty appealing, at either contract bid prices ($0.1791/rd for Speer, in either 124/147gr weight), or store prices (catch as catch can).
Lots of things to try and juggle in your thinking and decision-making without adding the nuances of
bonded v. non-bonded to the mix.
(Like getting hits on intended targets, regardless of what's being used.)