200 grain .38 Special?

[Mr. 16 gauge]

I remember reading an article from way back where a fellow was looking for a good defensive round for use in a snubby .38. Some of the things he tried were loading hollow base bullets backwards, loading lighter bullets, multiple ball rounds, ect. What he settled on was a cast 195 grain bullet at modest velocities.....he stated that the round was only barely stabilized by the rifling from the short, 2" barrel and would tumble when it hit flesh.
Any thoughts on this? I have some 200 grain RN slugs that I bought for my Vaquero in order to try and get it to hit to POA; thought I might play around with them and see.