short barrel ammo?

I am looking for self defense ammo and I found this. Since it is for a snub nose 38 special I figured it might be a good choice. Problem is I then found this information on testing with it in ballistic gel.

Speer 135 grain Gold Dot Short Barrel

Quote:

Cartridge : Speer 135gr Short Barrel Gold Dot (Load # 23921)

Firearm : .38 Special revolver with 1 7/8" barrel length

Calibration : All depths corrected (From 9.5cm @ 578 ft/sec impact velocity)

Shot 1 : Penetrated to 9.4" and expanded to 0.601"

Shot 2 : Penetrated to 10.2" and expanded to 0.605"

Shot 3 : Penetrated to 10.2" and expanded to 0.593"

Shot 4 : Penetrated to 10.0" and expanded to 0.597"

Shot 5 : Exited the side of the block at 10.0" and was not recovered.

One bullet out of five followed a straight path through the gelatin - all others curved and deviated significantly from their initial path in the block

Looking at the photo the bullets appear to be tumbling and not traveling in a straight line, one even appears to be "backwards"

The data on Brass Fetcher for the standard speer 135 Grain gold dot is:

Quote:

Firearm : .38 Special revolver with 1 7/8" barrel length

Calibration : All depths corrected (From 9.2cm @ 556 ft/sec)

Shot 1 - 125gr +P Speer Gold Dot. Bullet penetrated to 9.5" and expanded to 0.511" average diameter

.

But it appears to have traveled straight.

They also show this which seems to be a better choice.
Buffalo bore

Quote:

Special thanks to Buffalo Bore Ammunition for sponsoring this test.

Cartridge : Buffalo Bore 125gr non +P Speer Low Velocity JHC (Part # 20E)

Firearm : Smith and Wesson 642 with 1 7/8" barrel length

Block calibration : All depths corrected (From 10.8cm @ 615 ft/sec)

Shot 1 - Impacted at 937 ft/sec, penetrated to 12.5" and expanded to 0.528" average diameter. Recovered at 124.1gr weight.

Shot 2 - Impacted at 928 ft/sec, penetrated to 12.2" and expanded to 0.512" average diameter. Recovered at 124.2gr weight.

Shot 3 - Impacted at 949 ft/sec, penetrated to 12.5" and expanded to 0.525" average diameter. Recovered at 124.1gr weight.

Shot 4 - Impacted at 944 ft/sec, penetrated to 12.0" and expanded to 0.510" average diameter. Recovered at 125.3gr weight.

Shot 5 - Impacted at 943 ft/sec, penetrated to 11.6" and expanded to 0.515" average diameter. Recovered at 124.4gr weight.

Any comments?