Does anyone know if this is good ammo for defense? Specifically, 150 Grain Star fire HPs (357 mag) and 125 grain star fire HPs (38 special). I see this ammo is relatively cheap for 20 round boxes compared to other self defense rounds. So I was curious how it rates.

The Starfire bullet was designed by the same man that designed the Federal Hydra-Shok bullet. It had a good rep when it came out.

I have no opinion of the .38 ammo. My guess is that the .357 is fine. .357 magnum is a hard cartridge to screw up.

I fired 125 grain Starfire in a .357 Sig. It was very inconsistent in accuracy and bullet performance. Sometimes the bullet would expand perfectly; other times it would not expand at all. I was not impressed and have not used it since.

I have no specifics on bullet performance, my only experience was in a 240 grain H/P loading in .44 Magnum. The 29-2 four inch didn't have any issues with accuracy. It was extremely flashy, but then damned near everything is flashy in a 4" 29? My subjective impression was, it was not loaded as stiffly as the 240 jacketed stuff from the big 3. YMMV?

Thanks for the responses. It appears that there is not enough information to make a subjective judgement on it's effectiveness. It is not my primary self defense round but lately I have been able to find it fairly cheap so I will use it primarily for range and a self defense round if nothing else is available.