Which would you get the best performance from? Heavy gr bullet say 180-200 vs a light gr say 125-150gr for example. At about 10yrds with any compact pistol, about a 3 inch barrel to compare the gr performance.
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For practical purposes, for practice/training, here is all that matters
- The ammo you use is reliable in your gun, in your hands, with your magazines
- The point of impact (POI) is close-enough for practical defensive purposes to your defensive ammo
- Thatās really it
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What exact gun and cartridge are you looking at when you say āperformanceā, what do you mean?
And let me just skip to āFederal HST for defense, and whatever is cheap and reliable with close-enough POI for practiceā
For a defensive pistol as I would expect a tiny 3" barrel to be
Heavier, slower bullets are generally better in short barrels. The heavier, slower bullets lose less velocity as a %, and generally designed to more reliably open at lower velocities
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This is where picking quality, proven ammunition shines. Something like Federal HST 147gr is pretty much not going to fail to expand, 3" barrel or not.
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Heavier projectiles also tend to not expand at all from short barrels.
Slow and heavy is good for hunting but speed kills.
Agree 100 percent with brother @Enzo_T
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Check out modern projectiles
In fact, Federal literally made an even heavier than the other options round specifically for micro pistols with the shortest barrels. 150 gr for 9mm
Heavier bullets tend to do better in shorter barrels. They lose a lower % of their velocity than lighter bullets, and are now, modern day, by the good manufacturers, designed to open reliably at the velocities achieved in super short conceal carry barrels
And it performs spectacularly (as all HST does, pretty much). This guy tests in 3" barrels and even FBI style multi layer denim
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(not that you need special ammo for a super short barrel, see his full ammo quest 9mm series or anyone else, standard pressure regular old 124gr does exceptionally well as does standard 147gr)
So Iām actually not sure why they made the 150 gr it really wasnāt needed but hey Iām not them lol
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You are right, I did not explicitly state I was referring to modern ammunition in my first post.
If you are using quality, modern ammunition, heavier and slower JHP are a better fit in general for short barrels than lighter and faster.
If you are using FMJ/Ball ammo out outdated unreliably ammo that might not expand because it went through a shirt first no matter the weight (looking at you, OG hydrashok and 9BP), all bets are off
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It really comes down to the specific bullet/ammo design and how they perform in a specific barrel. Bullets are designed to perform optimally within a certain velocity range. Go much slower or much faster than the designed range and the bullet will likely perform poorly or unreliably. Whether it can stay within that performance window or not can be impacted by barrel length and how fast the powder burns inside that barrel. There can actually even be velocity differences between barrels of the same length made by different manufactures.
Ideally we could all have our own calibrated gel setups to test our specific firearms with a variety of ammo but that would be pricey and time consuming. I donāt have the time or money to do that so I try finding testers using the same barrel length and preferably the same exact pistol when possible. I also want testers who follow the proper FBI standard protocols and shoot at least 5 rounds to get a solid average. Preferably with and without a heavy cloth barrier and ideally also with test shots through a variety of other barriers.
Some heavy bullets work great from short barrels and some donāt. The same can be said for the lighter bullets as well. In 9mm I happen to use āheavyā 147 grain Federal HST bullets in my 3ā and 4ā barrels. The vast majority of quality tests I have seen show that particular bullet expands and penetrates reliably from barrels ranging from 3ā to 16ā.
Ironically the 150gr Micro HST which was designed specifically for shorter barrels seems to expand and penetrate extremely well from 3.5ā to 4.5ā barrels but from the tests I have seen it doesnāt expand reliably from barrels shorter than 3.5ā.
So it really depends on several factors. I might prefer a heavier bullet from one manufacturer or a lighter bullet from another.
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Or you could chose Solid Fluted Monolithic and not worry about expansion ā¦
Here are a couple of examples: Shop Ammo - Handgun Ammo - Page 1 - Underwood Ammo
or maybe these:
Norma NXDā¢ | Norma (norma-ammunition.com)
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For the benefit of those not watching the link this is an Interesting comment and reply from the XDS 3.3" and 5" 1911 video:
The guy that made the video obviously thinks the HST does not perform properly in the short barrel.
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Which video is that, what test was done on what gel and what were the penetration/expansion results with each?
I jumped through the one with a short barrel from AR15 .com and it performed ālike a bossā, perfectly, flawlessly, exactly as you want, even from the super short barrel. That was the .45. The ammoquest 9mm series also shows all HST performing exceptionally well, basically perfectly, from a 3" barrel (124gr mostly as I recallā¦really the answer to what defensive ammo should just be āHST and be done with itā lol)
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The Federal 150 gr HST is a good choice for sub-compact pistols,
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FWIW, I donāt trust the clear ballistics gel, itās not 1:1 with calibrated ordnance gel, though it generally seems IMO to show as the second best thing out there.
That is an unusual result also. First time I remember seeing an HST fail to expand. And it was only about 20 FPS slower than the long barrel. Like literally if I followed that correctly 3.3" was only 20 FPS slower than 5". I have a hard time believing 20 FPS difference on an HST accounts for massive expansion vs basically zero expansion. Iād also like to see more than three total bullets fired, the better tests do a minimum of 5 and then average them to account for outliers.
But, it did fail to expand from the shorter barrel, even with all of the limitations to the test listed above, that was the result. Maybe thatās one reason I donāt conceal carry .45 ACP, it doesnāt expand reliably from short barrels maybe? IDK lol
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because their pictures are easy to link, here is lucky gunner doing 230gr HST in .45 out of a 3.6" barrel
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That picture is a thing of artisic and engineering beauty. Lucky Gunner is simply terrific.
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