[TruthTellers]

From what I've seen, Critical Defense is meant to open up quickly at lower velocities from subcompact pistols so overpentration doesn't occur, but Critical Duty opens slower and more "mechanically" if you will, and it's meant to penetrate deep because LEO's tend to have to shoot through stuff to get to the perp on the other side.

Critical Defense is a standard JHP; it has petals that open way up and then fold back, but the copper petals... they seem to break off more often than not. That's probably part of the design to help reduce penetration.

Personally, when it comes to subcompacts now, if I'm worried about failures to expand, I'll just use the Polycase ammo that doesn't rely on expansion to work. The bullet is light, fast, and it tumbles to create damage.

Critical Duty looks like the bullet has been squished like Play-Doh, which means that there really are no petals that open up wide, create all the drag that reduces penetration, and fold back. So, that's why they penetrate deep. They're great out of 4 and 5 inch pistols, but from short barrels IDK. Can't remember if they were good or bad. One thing I do know is if I were using a pistol carbine for defense, I'd load it with Duty. Critical Duty is built in a way that it will not overexpand and the fall apart at high velocities; it stays together as one piece and because a carbine's barrel is so long and adds a lot to velocity, that's where Duty shines as bright as the box it's packaged in.

It maximizes its expansion, but it keeps the penetration. Any other hollow point would fall apart after hitting flesh and cause less damage.

Critical Defense has applications where it is the better choice, but for most applications, Critical Duty is better.