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Any solo carriers have any experience with Federal HSTs? I'm trying to decide between carrying the 124gr, 124gr +p, and the 147gr. Before I spend the money and do a side by side comparison, do any of you guys have experience with these rounds through the Solo? Any of your expertise would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks in advance!
All I can say, is If you know someone else with a Kimber, ask them what works, or doesn't in a lot of cases....
The 147 grain bullets can have an over-penetration problem. When you let a round go you own it. I would suggest the Federal Guard Dog bullet. It's an Expanding Full Metal Jacket, so it feeds in anything. It was designed to open to full expansion even after hitting bone, something a HP does not do, and expend all it's energy on the target. It's a light 105 grain bullet moving very fast.
Heavier-bullet loads usually cause slower, more controllable recoil. This may be useful, in a small pistol.
Faster-moving, lighter-weight bullets cause "snappier" recoil.
Try to find penetration-distance tests on the web. Generally speaking, you want about a foot (12") of penetration into standard ballistic gelatin.
Anything more may (not will) cause overpenetration, exiting your, um, target and hitting something behind it.
Anything less may not penetrate enough to do instant-stop damage.
Recoil is very subjective, in that, it depends on the shooter and what they perceive as to much recoil. Some people are affected by recoil while others don't seem to notice the recoil. I personally prefer not to shoot plus P loads in my Ruger LC9 but in my Glock 26 find +P loads to be very comfortable. Not sure how you would feel with those loads in your Kimber and I have never shot a kimber. Some loads work very well from short barrels, my favorites are the standard pressure 124 grain Remy Golden Saber, Speer Gold Dot 124 +P short barrel load, and the corbon 115 +P DPX. I believe the Federal HST 147 grain works very well from a short barrel also and believe the 124 standard or +P HST would be OK also. Hornady Critical Defense 115 grain was designed for short barrels and would work, though it isn't my favorite. Truthfully, many loads are going to work in your Kimber.
Check out Goldenloki.com for examples of short barrel ballistics tests in Gel.