This 38 Special cartridge by Sellier & Bellot offers a 158 grain projectile, which is the bullet weight the caliber originally offered when it was designed in the 19th century. Its soft tip provides expansion upon impact somewhat like a traditional hollow point would, as well as the ability to tumble within a target to create a wide and crippling wound channel. This bullet features a partial jacket to facilitate in penetration, letting it go a little deeper within soft targets than a hollow point would before its expansion initiates. (The jacket will also vastly reduce the amount of barrel fouling that you experience.)

The sum of its features makes this round’s bullet not only appropriate for self-defense, but also for target practice, hunting, and really whatever you could imagine for it — especially in areas where firing hollow point bullets is not permitted. This is an accurate round thanks in part to its 889 fps muzzle velocity, and a well-made one courtesy of its Czech manufacturer’s nearly two centuries in business.