Presume you're focusing on defensive loads. Federal HSTs is what I settled on. Tried 124gr, 147gr +P and 150gr Micro. I don't do gel tests, but the gun does eat them with aplomb. They also blow up 1gal milk jugs but good. When I carried my G43 whatever weight I can conveniently find was what was in the mags.
Here's an excerpt of something I first posted about ten years ago. Short barrel Gold Dot is the round on the right:
9mm PPS Gold Dot testing into wet phone books
Like my equally unscientific fall 07 projects, I soaked four 2” books overnight. They doubled in size, and I ended up with about 15” of phone books which I put in a cardboard box. I fired all five rounds into the same end.
Target box:
9mm from my PPS at 5 feet: Left, Ammoman’s reclassified 124gr Gold Dot penetrated about 8 inches and expanded to about .5 inch. Right, 124gr +P short barrel Gold Dot penetrated about 8 inches and expanded to about .5 inch.
Summary: It was fun, very unscientific, and I’m comfortable carrying short barrel Gold Dots in my PPS.
I like HST 124g standard pressure. I carry +P in larger guns (G19 P2000) but they are a bit much in the little G43.
Men fight for liberty and win it with hard knocks. Their children, brought up easy, let it slip away again, poor fools. And their grandchildren are once more slaves.
-D.H. Lawrence
Posts: 11524 | Location: Fort Worth, Texas | Registered: February 07, 2007
Yes, the Federal HST 124 grain standard velocity. The 147 offerings seem to be vastly superior to previous generations in that weight class, but I think the 124 is the perfect balance of weight and velocity in the G43. I'd avoid +P offerings in this pistol. The standard velocity stuff will be more controllable.
