I posted this on another thead the other day
It didn't get any comments, so I hope I am not going to kill your thread also.
I recently attended the Gunsite 250 Basic Defensive Handgun course. This was my second course at Gunsite and for both courses, the facility provided a notebook filled with good information on everything from Lead exposure, to firearms safety, to more in-depth information on the course material. In both notebooks there were very interesting ballistic studies pertaining to the weapon you are training on. In this class obviously the information pertained to handgun cartridges. The studies were carried out at the California Highway Patrol Academy Weapons Training Department Indoor firing Range by Gary K. Roberts, DDS who is a Lieutenant Commander in the U.S. Naval Reserve, performing wound ballistic research and combat casualty care training. One such study included in this material was entitled; Terminal Performance of .38 Special and .380 ACP Hollow Point Bullets Intended for Law Enforcement Back-up and Off Duty Self-Defense Using 10% Ordnance Gelatin as a Tissue Simulant. Acceptable perfromance was arbitrarily defined as meeting both a minimum penetration of 12.0" and expansion of .55". Weapons used were a Colt Mustang Pocket Lite, S&W 60-3 with a 3" barrel and a S&W Model 38 with a 2" barrel.
Boiled down to a nutshell, the study found that All of the .380 ACP JHP bullets tested offered generally inconsistent, unacceptable terminal performance for law enforcement back-up and off duty self-defense use due to inadequate penetration, as well as inadequate expansion. In .38 Special however, he found that The .38 Special bullets which offered the most reliable wounding effects for law enforcement back-up and off duty self-defense use in revolvers of two and three inch barrel lengths and were most likely to provide rapid incapacitation were the Remington +P 158 grain LSWCHP (R38S12) and Winchester +P 147 grain JHP (RA38147HP). The Federal +P+ 147 grain "Hydra-Shok" JHP (P38HS2) bullet offers outstanding performance in revolvers with at least a 3" barrel, but should not be used in 2" barrel weapons due to insufficient expansion. The Winchester +P 138 grain JHP (SXTS35P) bullet offers acceptable performance in 2" barrel revolvers, but should not be used in longer barrel lengths due to insufficient bullet penetration.