Ok. I know that defense ammo is made to do more damage and from all I have researched on it, I guess it does. Does that mean target ammo won't do serious damage to an attacker?
The short answer to your question is "no".
Anything a firearm puts out that pokes holes in the bad guy is exceedingly dangerous and deadly. How dangerous and deadly is a factor of what it's poking holes in along the way and how much damage it does in the process.
Which means that the number one factor in this endeavor isn't the ABILITY of a bullet to cause massive tissue damage, but YOUR ability to produce those holes in the first place.
In other words, you've gotta hit your target first before you can be effective at all.
Couple things about handguns and ballistics in general:
1. A handgun is the most limited firearm firearm out of all the firearms, simply due to physics. They're smaller than rifles, which necessarily means they are by nature less capable in a number of ways.
This is offset by the fact that handguns, being smaller, are far easier to carry and conceal than rifles. There gun you have on hand is infinately better than the one you do not.
2. It's not about "energy", per se, when it comes to terminal ballistics. Though energy is important, and is one measurable aspect of a bullet's performance, it's not "energy" which stops the bad guy. It's those holes the bullets make and what those holes appear in.
Bullet design is hugely important in increasing the potential effectiveness of any hit, relative to the same hit by another bullet.
"Potential" effectiveness, because because many factors can influence the terminal ballistics at the target. Bullet design, mass, velocity, intervening material the bullet passes through, the tissues/bones the bullet impacts, etc.
IN GENERAL (all other things being equal):
- Round nose bullets cause the least tissue damage because tissue is elastic. But they have excellent penetration characteristics.
- Flat nosed bullets cause more tissue damage than round nose, because the flat nose design acts more to "punch out" or "cut" a hole in the tissues they pass through. But they have slightly lower penetration characteristics.
- Hollow point bullets cause much greater tissue damage than either, but have even lower penetration characteristics AND performance may be heavily influenced by a number of factors such as bullet design, velocity, hitting soft tissue or bone, fouling of the hollow cavity by foreign material, etc.
Volumes can be written on this discussion, which is why I have the short answer when I opened my posting.
Target ammo IS plenty deadly. But ball ammo cycles most reliably in semi-auto firearms and it's cheaper (meaning you're more likely to have a lot of it).
All other factors equal, it's least damaging in soft tissue.
Given the choice, a quality hollow point is preferable. But pumping the bad guy full of non-hollow point induced holes will also ruin his day.