Dependable to do what? Stop?
People make choices largely based on pain. You don't need a central nervous system stop to stop most humans like you may need to stop a large dangerous animal. Put a hole in somebody, and that's going to hurt a whole bunch. People are thinking creatures and are likely to quit when the pain gets high while wild animals use much less logic in their reactions to pain. Will a less effective round like ball hurt any less than a high-tech hollow point? Probably not.
Regarding central nervous system stops that many hunters have to rely on to stop large dangerous game to keep from being stomped or chomped, what kind of bullet are they using? Check with the handgun hunters in the revolver section and find out what round they're using to to shoot game, with a gun that is marginal for the task at hand (note - nearly every defensive trainer will tell you handguns are lousy man-stoppers - we've even had this comment in this thread). It's probably not a hollow point, and they work just fine.
I'm not advocating anybody use any round or bullet type, use whatever you want, just that poking a big enough hole in a human, and generally making that hole deep enough to hit something important, are what folks should focus on rather than stuff like over-penetration of handgun rounds in self defense situations, or that since a particular gun or round is not current high-tech it doesn't mean that it is ineffective, especially one that has as long of a track record as the .45 ACP.
