Mindset, bullet placement, tactics, and training are all much more important than any superior personal defense handgun cartridge. However, mindset, bullet placement, tactics, and training are all severely compromised by any inferior personal defense handgun cartridge. Even with the best of mindset, bullet placement, tactics, and training, selecting an inferior personal defense handgun cartridge may simply be the last mistake that you will ever make.

A "superior" personal defense handgun cartridge is a cartridge that allows a defender to, ideally, stop a threat by incapacitating the bad guy with a single, well-placed shot. An "inferior" personal defense handgun cartridge is simply any cartridge that doesn't do that.

The general characteristics of a superior personal defense handgun cartridge are as follows:

1. The cartridge must be absolutely reliable.
2. The cartridge must generate sufficient energy for the bullet to do its job (particularly to expand properly).
3. The cartridge must generate sufficient momentum (and the bullet must have adequate sectional density) for the bullet to penetrate properly.
4. The cartridge must perform its job without generating excessive recoil and muzzle blast. You must be able to control and shoot the pistol accurately in a high stress situation, very possibly in darkness (beware of muzzle flash!) as well as when practicing at the range.
5. The bullet must be designed and constructed to penetrate sufficiently and expand violently, but not over penetrate so as to endanger neighbors or bystanders.

Look for a cartridge and load that ideally generates at least 400 foot-pounds of muzzle energy (ME), a "power factor" (PF) of 170 and which is topped with a modern jacketed expanding bullet of proven performance. Make sure that the bullet is appropriate to the situation regarding expansion characteristics and penetration (avoiding over penetration!).

If the recoil of the selected cartridge in the handgun of choice is too severe, then increase the weight of the gun and/or seek additional training. As a last resort, slowly decrease the muzzle energy and velocity requirements to find a cartridge with tolerable recoil, then work up to more powerful cartridges as training and conditioning permit.

The cartridges in Table 1 are reasonably common personal defense cartridges that are commercially available to non-law enforcement users. This list is far from complete, since I was unable to include any of the popular Winchester, Hornady, or Cor-Bon brand loads, too few Remington and Federal loads and it is skewed in favor of the less widely distributed Buffalo Bore brand ammunition. However, it does illustrate the previously mentioned principles of selecting superior personal defense handgun cartridges. All of the bullets listed are of the jacketed hollow point (JHP) type.

After careful thought and due deliberation, it seemed appropriate to define the energy and momentum requirements as a single value by simply adding the minimum energy (400 ft. lbs.) and Power Factor (170) requirements together, establishing a ME+PF requirement of 570.

This allows an easier method to select cartridges meeting the minimum requirements. It also allows easier sorting and understanding of large tables of numbers (like Table 1.).

Another column that may require some explanation is the "PF Ratio" column. This column represents the ratio of the generated recoil of the "cartridge of interest" relative to the generated recoil of the Federal 38 Special 110 grain Hydra-Shok cartridge. For example, the Speer Ammo 357 Magnum 125 grain Gold Dot HP cartridge generates approximately 1.68 times the recoil momentum of the Federal 38 Special 110 grain Hydra-Shok cartridge. And, the PMC Ammo 380 ACP 95 grain Starfire HP cartridge generates approximately 0.82 times the recoil momentum of the Federal 38 Special 110 grain Hydra-Shok cartridge.

Table 2 illustrates the effects that different barrel lengths (different guns) have on the performance of the same cartridge. By the requirements presented, the same cartridge can be either a superior personal defense handgun cartridge or an inferior personal defense handgun cartridge. It is also interesting to note that, as the lengths of the test barrels become shorter, lighter bullets seem to become "inferior" more quickly than heavier bullets. Make good choices! Your life may depend on it!

In the folowing tables I give bullet weight in grains, muzzle velocity (MV) in feet-per-second, muzzle energy in foot-pounds, and barrel length in inches. "PF ratio" Re: Fed .38 Special 110 grain HydraShok JHP factory load. Due to space constraints in the tables below, Buffalo Bore ammo is simply labeled "Buffalo," the Speer Gold Dot Hollow Point bullet is abbreviated "GDHP" and Remington is abbreviated as "Rem."

Table 1. Personal Defense Handgun Cartridges sorted by descending values of ME+PF.