It will depend on the pistol you are looking at buying as to how you can load it. If it is anything other than a Ruger pistol you will not be able to load the 45LC to compete with the .44Mag. If you are looking at a Ruger pistol then you can load it to the hotter levels. I like shooting heavy hard cast bullets with a wide flat meplate. I have loaded in the past 300gr Hornady XTP bullets and they work ok but the cast bullets will penetrate like no ones business.