Wadcutters for Defense?

Midrange wadcutters for self defense appear to be the low recoil choice now that there are few .32s on the market.

There used to be a standard wadcutter at higher velocity but not up to the heavy charge you get from Buffalo Bore. Too bad it is gone.

Me? I put up with 158 gr lead hollow points for a long time, now use the 135 gr Gold Dot "short barrel".

It is, to my thinking, the weaker choice having 148 grains at 750 fps rather than 158 at 850 or more. The soft lead and totally flat nose does appeal somehow.
Back in my commercial loading days, quite a while back, in the sixties, I had some regular LEO and campus police officers ask for hollow base wadcutters loaded backwards. The only live thing I ever shot with them was a woodchuck at five yards and, having hit it in the hip, it escaped into a bean field. No idea of expansion. I have shot them into mud and gotten nice mushrooms as well as flattened openings.
Not my choice though my wife carried them in her model 36. Her arthritic hands couldn't handle much recoil.

The argument is snubs don't have the barrel length to develop velocities needed for reliable expansion. So going to a wadcutter gets you easier shooting, faster follow up shots, along with full caliber holes. Even target wadcutters will penetrate sufficiently for self defense use so there's no need for all the blast and recoil typically associated with JHP +P rounds in Airweights/LCRs that people mostly like to carry. So the argument goes, anyway.

Check the two most recent offerings over
at RevolverGuy.com regarding snubs, ammo.

It wouldn’t be my first choice that’s for sure

Tough call and depends on several things. Yes, a JHP is better IF it expands. Also, if you reload and can push the WC faster (without blowing the skirt off of it if hollow based) then it gains some.

If I was forced to carry my reloads I think I would work up a WC load (prefer LSWC) to use unless I was positive that the JHP's I have on hand will expand at 38 speeds.

Go with a 158gr LWSC to get a bit more weight and something a bit easier to get into the cylinder quickly.

I still have a box and a half of the Winchester LSWC/HP +P loads on the shelf.They must be almost 30 years old now..?
Too hot for my snub nosed pistols, but good in the full size 38/357s.

148gr. WC .38spl is a decent snub load for recoil shy folks that ccw.

I feel like wad cutters in 38 special is a 60 year old solution to a modern day problem. I have a box of 38 special semi wad cutters I will load for range time. But I carry hornady critical defense. At this point it’s psychological. I prefer a plus p even if the barrel is short.

When I carried a small bore revolver, I used the full wadcutter load described in the article.

https://www.grantcunningham.com/2011/11/ed-harris-revisiting-the-full-charge-wadcutter/

Kevin

I always have a couple boxes loaded from the stash of hbwcs we bought in 20,000 lots. I also cast a 160 grain wc using Lyman 358432. I have not fouind a gun that wouldn't shoot it well.

The progress in the modern day pistol bullets is so advanced these days I cannot understand why someone wound consider wad cutters.

frogfurr said:

The progress in the modern day pistol bullets is so advanced these days I cannot understand why someone wound consider wad cutters.

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Probably because they have come to find why these types of guns are not a lot of fun or easy to shoot well with full power loads.

The standard response to the questions about what would work better in them then, when asked, seems to be wadcutters.

I think if wadcutters will get you to shoot the gun on a regular basis, and to the point that you can shoot it well, in any way you might be called on to shoot it, then youre probably better off with them, than something you wont. Just dont assume they will relieve you of having to put in, and keep up the work to be effective with them though. It doesnt matter what the ammo is, if you cant quickly and on demand, put it where it needs to go.

Jim Cirillo was a legendary New York City cop in the late 60's and 70's, who was a member of the Stakeout Squad and consequently was involved in a lot of gunfights during the time when LEOs were using revolvers. He liked wadcutters. Lots of references online, books and articles. Enjoy the feast!

I stand corrected.

All I carry in my snubbies. Well, except for the 22lrs, they get solids.

J-Bar said:

Jim Cirillo was a legendary New York City cop in the late 60's and 70's, who was a member of the Stakeout Squad and consequently was involved in a lot of gunfights during the time when LEOs were using revolvers. He liked wadcutters. Lots of references online, books and articles. Enjoy the feast!

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I like this and I have carried wadcutters myself, but ask what he might carry today, if he were here with the same choices we have now. They worked then and work now, but today he might like the now-classic NYPD load, the speer 135gr +p GDSB.

JCooperfan1911 said:

I now carry a Ruger LCR .38 special for pocket carry and am very intrigued in possibly using wadcutters.
Thoughts and input on this concept would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

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For a few months now, in my 38 LCR, have been loading either the Buffalo Bore or Underwood 150 gr WC.
Got them just out of curiosity (also couldn't get what I had been utilizing) - have shot both into my test target of a gallon jug of frozen water wrapped in a layer of duct tape. They leave a nice wound channel [crushed ice] and penetrate fine (10 steps). LCR shoots them well. Not sure I have a preference between them yet, waiting for more to arrive.

Hollow base, upside down.

I once managed to get a box of .38 wadcutters apparently loaded to simulate the recoil of standard 158gr round nose service ammo. That was a surprise.

I think it is more important to find ammo that you and your gun shoot well. If that happens to be wad-cutters then I would say go for it. I have shot rabbits with wc's and they do make a good wound. I understand that rabbits are not people, but the damage was impressive.

Wadcutters are an excellent option if you cannot find any hollow points that expand from a short barrel. This may not be as much an issue with .38 anymore given the industry support for that caliber, but .32, .44, and .45 have been neglected. For those calibers a wadcutter is viable and in the case of something like .32 S&W Lg pretty much the only option.

Lucky Gunner Test (like video in OP) of 38 special bullets. Obvious to me that a HP makes a bigger hole and both are from a 2'' barrel: