Speer Gold Dot 165-grain is tied for the fastest 165 in this set: 1,150 fps and 484 ft-lbs. Gold Dot is a bonded jacketed hollow point, jacket and core bonded so they stay together. Power factor 190, about 25 over the 165 major floor and the highest here. From a 25-yard zero it drops 1.3 inches at 50 yards and 10.0 at 100, arriving at 1,051 fps and 404 ft-lbs at 50 and 980 fps and 352 ft-lbs at 100. It also recoils the most here: about 3 percent more than Federal HST 165 and 18 percent more than Hornady Critical Defense 165 or PMC Bronze 165 in the same compact pistol.

Remington Golden Saber 165 posts identical figures, so the choice is construction: bonded Gold Dot against the Golden Saber's brass jacket. Federal HST 165 starts 20 fps and 16 ft-lbs behind, but it holds its speed better and cuts the energy gap to 8 ft-lbs at 50 yards and 5 at 100. Hornady Custom 155 XTP is 30 fps faster at the muzzle with 5 ft-lbs less energy; by 100 yards the Gold Dot is 22 ft-lbs ahead, 352 to 330, with about 8 percent more recoil. Critical Defense 165 trails by 105 fps and 84 ft-lbs and drops 2.0 inches more at 100. PMC Bronze 165, at 1,040 fps, is 88 ft-lbs behind.

Buy this for the top of the 165-grain energy range with a bonded bullet, if you shoot the caliber's recoil well. For nearly the same downrange energy, Federal HST 165 arrives at 100 yards within 5 ft-lbs of the Gold Dot with about 3 percent less recoil. For practice, Winchester 165-grain FMJ Range runs 1,060 fps and 412 ft-lbs with about 15 percent less recoil energy, a step softer than the Gold Dot.