lambertiana
Member
Today I got to test some Federal 230 gr HST from my G30, this is the standard pressure load, not the +P.
Same as before, I fired from about 10' into wet newspaper covered with two layers cotton t-shirt and two layers jeans denim. All 10 rounds recovered, as seen in the picture below:
Not very consistent. On the right in the picture are the two Gold Dot 230 gr that I shot into the same target for comparison. Surprisingly, one of them was the first Gold Dot I have ever fired into wet newspaper that did not give full expansion.
Penetration of the HST was also low. The fully expanded bullets only penetrated around 5-7", and the non-expanded penetrated up to about 11-12", but most were in the 8-10" range. The expanded Gold Dot penetrated close to 10", and the partially expanded Gold Dot penetrated to about 11" (further than all but one of the non-expanded HST). So the HST does not penetrate as far as the Gold Dot when fired out of a G30.
I also noticed that most of the HST had tumbled - the fully expanded bullets were facing base forward, and the others exhibited at least some evididence of tumbling.
For comparison, this picture shows the optimum expansion I have seen from the G30 (remember that except for the Gold Dot and Critical Defense, these are very inconsistent out of the G30 and these are only the best ones):
Top row - Winchester Ranger T 230 gr, Gold Dot 230 gr, Federal HST 230 gr. Bottom row: Taurus copper 185 gr, Hornady Critical Defense 185 gr.
Same as before, I fired from about 10' into wet newspaper covered with two layers cotton t-shirt and two layers jeans denim. All 10 rounds recovered, as seen in the picture below:
Not very consistent. On the right in the picture are the two Gold Dot 230 gr that I shot into the same target for comparison. Surprisingly, one of them was the first Gold Dot I have ever fired into wet newspaper that did not give full expansion.
Penetration of the HST was also low. The fully expanded bullets only penetrated around 5-7", and the non-expanded penetrated up to about 11-12", but most were in the 8-10" range. The expanded Gold Dot penetrated close to 10", and the partially expanded Gold Dot penetrated to about 11" (further than all but one of the non-expanded HST). So the HST does not penetrate as far as the Gold Dot when fired out of a G30.
I also noticed that most of the HST had tumbled - the fully expanded bullets were facing base forward, and the others exhibited at least some evididence of tumbling.
For comparison, this picture shows the optimum expansion I have seen from the G30 (remember that except for the Gold Dot and Critical Defense, these are very inconsistent out of the G30 and these are only the best ones):
Top row - Winchester Ranger T 230 gr, Gold Dot 230 gr, Federal HST 230 gr. Bottom row: Taurus copper 185 gr, Hornady Critical Defense 185 gr.