A cast lead alloy 158gr +/- semi wad-cutter bullet is a good choice for general use.

The sharp shoulder cuts a clean hole in paper targets for ease of scoring and is a long time favorite bullet for self defense.

My long time favorite load with the 158gr bullet (LSWC or LRN) is 5.0 grains of Alliant Unique powder. This gives a fairly powerful load that is also extremely accurate. When I started loading ammo back almost 60 years ago this load was under the maximum in the reloading manuals. Today is is a bit over maximum listed in new manuals... I have loaded tens of thousands of rounds over the years with great satisfaction in the load... none-the-less you should work up to this load using the usual methods.

In use it feels about like a factory 158gr LRN load in terms of recoil.

For paper shooting nothing beats the very long time choice bulls eye shooters in the form of a 148gr full wad-cutter bullet (I like the 148gr double end cast wad-cutter.) Again I use the old time target shooters load of a 148gr LWC over 2.8gr of Alliant Bulls-Eye powder. This is a very accurate load with low recoil, which makes it an excellent choice for training new shooters too.

FWIW

Chuck