Congrates man, I too bought a Springfield XD .45 service just last year for my first gun purchase. This bad boy will eat anything without fail. As far as defense, my research has lead me to depend on speer gold dot, 16"-18" penatration in ballistic gel in .45, for me, the less corllateral damage the better. Watched some youtubes about the Hornady not expanding properly, the fabric of clothing has been known to mix that that red clay/rubber stuff in the bullet and not expand properly. Not sure if they worked this out or if it's been talked about much on here. I'm not knocking the round, I'm just stating what I've seen, no one can really rebuttle these youtubes, unless they've run the test themselves, just saying. Goo luck.