Caliber agnostic, what brand / weight do you like for defensive ammo?

I am running Gold Dot 230 grain in .45, HST 180 or 165 grain in .40, HST 124, 124+p or a smattering of 147 grain HST in 9mm.

I ask because Federal seems to be knocking it of the Park with the HST offerings across the board and the hydrashock deep seems to be doing well too.

I still run a bit of Gold Dot but I really seem to be moving to HST across the board.

So what say you, what do you like these days. Still running 9BPLE these days???

In .38/.357 I still lean towards Gold Dot or Golden Sabre.

For my 45's I use 230 grain Remington Golden Saber and 230 grain Federal Hydrashoks.

For my 9mm I use 115 grain Hornady Critical Defense hollow points.

I don't think you could do bad as long as you had any of the peemuim hollow points.

9BPLE works very nicely in my Ruger PC Carbine.
Any HST caliber or weight works fine in my handguns.

My main carry guns are 9mm.

Little guns (P365, Kahr MK9) I use Hornady 115gr XTP's.

Big guns (Glock 19's, P320's, etc..) I use Federal 9BPLE

Federal HST 147 standard pressure for 9mm


I've already tested a couple hundred rounds of 147 grain Federal HST standard pressure through the Glocks, and keep a small supply of them, but since they are very hard to come by here in CA now that online sales are restricted, so I am looking into a more readily available round.
Currently using Winchester PDX1 147 grain in the Glock 26, which is my most carried gun. The G19 still loaded with the HSTs.

I have an LCP that is also loaded with Federal HST 99grain, but planning on using Hornady XTP when I run out of what's left of HSTs and Critical Defense 380 auto.

Gold Dot 124 +P 9mm, Gold Dot 155 in .40, 230 +P HST in .45.

Gold Dot 124grn 9mm.

If I could ever find a decent price on HST at the same time I have the money to spare, I'd probably swap to HST, though.

9BPLE 115gr +P+ in my P series 9mm

Gold Dot 124 gn 9X19, and Sig v-crown .357 Sig 125 gn.

Gold Dot short barrel 9mm for the Kahr K9, HST 9mm for the 229 and Barnes XTP 45 for the 220.

124 gr Gold Dot or 135 gr Critical Duty.

Federal HST.

124 +P 9mm and 230 .45.

230 grain Winchester Ranger in my 45s. 147 grain Ranger RA9b in my 9mms. Gold Dot 158 grain 357 in my few remaining revolvers. But I dont carry them anymore. Regards 18DAI

124gr GD or HST, whichever I can find cheaper.

I used Win 127gr Ranger for 10 years before that, just got to be too expensive and hard to find at times.

I ran rangers for a good long while from 2006 till last year. I have switched to gold dots and hsts. Prior to 2006 i preferred hydra shoks.

Primarily HSTs, but I do have some Speer GDHPs mostly for the revolvers in 38/357Mag. There is something about the Speer 158gr in 357 and the 135gr loads in 38SPL that just work. Same for HSTs in 9MM.

I do have some Ranger-Ts for 45s, but not using 45s for carry / defense anymore, I don’t see those boxes changing anytime soon.

Magazines get HST, cylinders get Gold Dots.

147 grain G2s. The ballistic performance data that I have access to from actual shootings is pretty awesome.

HSTs. 124 gr +P for G19 and 124 gr Standard pressure for G43. I've been testing the 150 gr Short barrel HST in my G43. They feed and function perfectly and I do appreciated the somewhat reduced recoil, but the jury is still out on terminal performance.

Gold Dots primary. I think I have some HST in some backup mags. Totally unscientific, but I had HST presumably fail to expand with 155gr .40 in backyard testing. Went through clothing and 6 water jugs and kept going. Couldn't find the bullet, so I only assume it didn't open. Gold Dot was the only one that performed in that test, so I use them.