Last year I gave some general, common options for good .38 defense ammo, but this topic is about the BEST and frankly I'm a bit tired of that word being used for firearms, ammo, etc. because it's not so much about the best A+ 100%, it's more a pass/fail and so long as you don't fail, you pass.
By that I mean, whatever works well enough, works and there's not much need to look any further.
However, there's differences between what you're using and a 158gr +P probably isn't a good choice for a 12oz snubby unless that's the only gun you have and you have big animals that could be a threat to you and you need as much penetration as possible.
Personally, I'm not a big .38 guy, I only own one snub .38 and it's mostly relegated for home defense as it's pretty large and heavy. I do have some of the Hornady CD for it, I'm sure they would expand, but as time goes by my thinking is with a snub the right way to go is to not rely on hollow points and opt for solid projectiles and that leads me to three options:
Wadcutters- they're cheap, accurate, pretty low recoil, and have decent penetration and work by crushing tissue.
Polymer/Copper- lightweight, high velocity, lower recoil, and work by tumbling in soft tissue. Not as cheap as wadcutters, but allow for a faster reload.
Multiball- 2 pellets of 000 Buck in each case. Multiple wound tracks means greater blood loss and more tissue damage. Not sold commercially anymore, but can be reloaded.
When I want a snub my default is the .32, I believe it to be a superior choice for a snub.