Bullet points. Better yet, hollow points.

As we have all seen, there are a few handfuls of different self defense ammunition on the market. But are there ones out there really better than others? How about truly "innovative" rounds, do they really stack up as effective defensive rounds?

As with most things in life you can either take another's word for it or do the research yourself to find what is actual the best. During my research I have come across many different reasons for this type or that type. What it boils down to is mathematics.

I hate math, my worst subject in bygone days of school. With a little explanation we might be able to make sense of it all. We will be looking at a few different factors when deciding on a type on defensive ammo these are: velocity, mass and barrel length. We could go into twist rate but with the distances of defensive shooting this may not be as big a factor.

Velocity is the speed at which the projectile moves at. Mass of course is the weight of said projectile. The length of the barrel helps decide what the final velocity of said projectile is hurled through the air. Lets look at some examples. We will be looking at 9mm Hollow point. These numbers are from a 4" barrel.
- CorBon 90gr JHP +P Velocity: 1444 fps
- Federal Hydro-Shok low recoil 135gr. velocity: 1039 fps
- Speer Gold Dot 124gr. velocity: 1203 fps

Now some will see those velocities and fall in  love with that Cor Bon, first off it's +P secondly it moves at a pretty good clip. But what about that projectile weight? The Hydro-Shok denotes "Low Recoil"  but selling "low recoil" is easier than selling "low-velocity." The speer Gold Dot pretty much has the best of both worlds. higher velocity and heavier projectile. Of course the X factor is the performance of design. the Gold Dot has the backing of many hundreds of Law Enforcement Agencies, Hydro Shok and Cor Bon have decent marketing strategies. Though not to say the Cor Bon or Hydro Shok are necessarily inferior rounds, the Gold Dot performs better in FBI testing.

Here's the kicker, I do not run any of the above rounds through my self defense pistol. I run standard pressure  147gr Federal HST 9mm with a velocity of 1000 fps. After reviewing FBI standard testing of the HST I have found it suits my needs at a reasonable price point. I have nothing against the Gold Dot and the Hydro Shok has already been proven to be somewhat of a gimmick round, though I have carried the Hydro Shok for many years due to listening to friends and colleagues rather than actual statistics.

Lastly we have all seen the "other" rounds on the market. You know the ones. those that have some cool name or moniker of one form or the other. The "Boutique" rounds to put it nicely. Their marketing strategies must be more than half their budgets, cause it is the most innovative round EVER! yeah, that one. While they have cool sounding names and perform pretty cool tricks, their performance in FBI testing is lack luster at best. I guess for those who know of only the ballistics testing of the FBI protocol here is an LEO/Military application detailing all of the tests: FBI protocol 
Many of these specialty rounds need to stay on the range and not in your self defense firearm.