Federal HST 230-grain JHP is the classic .45 ACP defensive load: a heavy bullet at standard pressure and below the speed of sound. HST is Federal's jacketed hollow point line built for personal defense. It leaves at 890 fps with 404 ft-lbs, and its power factor of 205 clears the 165 USPSA major floor by 40 points, the widest margin of the four standard-pressure loads here. It loses only 35 fps by 50 yards, where it still carries 374 ft-lbs, and from a 25-yard zero it drops 2.4 inches at 50 and 16.1 at 100. Being subsonic, it suits a suppressed pistol with no special load.

Speer Gold Dot 185 starts 160 fps faster with 49 ft-lbs more, but both carry 374 ft-lbs at 50 yards and the HST leads by 26 at 100. In the same pistol the HST produces about 17 percent more recoil energy than the Gold Dot 185, 30 percent more than Hornady Custom 200 XTP and 52 percent more than Hornady Critical Defense 185. Those two Hornady loads are 10 fps faster with 44 and 71 ft-lbs less, and their drop matches the HST within 0.1 inch at 50 and 100 yards. The +P loads add little recoil: Speer Gold Dot Carry Gun +P 200 has 114 ft-lbs more for about 4 percent more recoil energy, and Hornady Critical Duty +P 220 has 60 ft-lbs more for about 6 percent more.

Buy it for any .45 ACP pistol, +P-rated or not, when you want a 230-grain carry load that makes major with room to spare. For practice, PMC Bronze 230 FMJ matches the bullet weight with about 11 percent less recoil energy in the same pistol. If recoil in a compact pistol is the problem, Hornady Critical Defense 185 is softer.