Wonderful Wicked Wadcutters...

A defensive load you may not have (but probably should have) considered.
Jacketed hollowpoints consistently fail to expand at snubnose
velocities when fired through gel or gel and plywood–acting almost
like an FMJ (right). Additionally, there are few things in life more
uncomfortable, or disconcerting to a new shooter, than the
unbelievably abusive recoil generated by an Ultra-Light snubbie
loaded with hot, heavy, and/or very fast, self defense ammunition.

SNUB-NOSED REVOLVERS HAVE BEEN popular as carry guns

for a long time. Also, those who favor big main guns can be found
packing a snubbie as a backup, but the short barrels that users favor for carry bring a price: lack of
velocity.

That velocity loss means expanding bullets often don’t expand. If your high-tech hollow-point fails to
expand, it works no better than a traditional lead round-nose. Also, the rounded nose of a jacketed
hollowpoint can glance off of hard things like bone. But if you increased velocity (and chamber
pressure) until you get enough to cause expansion, recoil becomes ferocious in a lightweight snubbie.

So let’s go about this in a different direction. We all know shot placement matters more than expansion
anyway. If a thug is about to punch your ticket, a lead round-nose through his sternum is much more
favorable to your cause than an expanding
bullet that only creases his stomach. Even if
that bullet expands to the size of a five-
gallon bucket, the poor shot placement
means it is of little, or no use.

So how about a bullet that works very

efficiently without expanding, that has good
accuracy and whose ultra soft recoil means
easier shooting and practicing? What about
full wadcutters?

Hear me out before you get all outraged.

What are the advantages? Cast-lead bullet
mavens from Elmer Keith to Veral Smith
have demonstrated that the sharp edge of a
bullet efficiently cuts in the wound track
even without expanding. The late, great Jim
Cirillo experimented with full wadcutter
bullets when serving on the NYPD Stakeout
Squad, and carried them everyday.
Where a rounded profile will shove vitals aside or glance off bone, the square, clean edge of a wadcutter
or semi-wadcutter will slice and cut, or dig in. When I was shooting bowling pins, a popular bullet with
revolver shooters was the “lead pencil”: a 230-grain .358-diameter full wadcutter. It did not glance off of
bowling pins, and as Jim Cirillo noted, it didn’t bounce off the hard skulls of bad guys either.

You can hardly argue with the accuracy of wadcutter bullets. Target shooters have both demonstrated the
efficiency of the bullet (clean holes in paper) and its accuracy. PPC shooters use wadcutters despite the
learning curve in reloading their blunt profiles into the cylinder. They use them for the simple reason that
few other bullets will shoot such tight groups.

For those who wonder about accuracy at a distance, the 50-yard 10 ring on a PPC target is about half the
size of a sheet of typing paper, and competitors who expect to win expect to hit it almost every time. The
X ring is less than half that, and the serious shooters are aiming only at the X ring. In other words,
wadcutters deliver accuracy as far as you can hit, and commensurately with your abilities.

The soft recoil helps. Where a 125-grain JHP

in .38 Special is doing all it can to generate
900 fps out of a snubbie (and usually failing),
the sedate wadcutter can be counted on to
deliver all of its 700 to 800 fps from a four-
inch barrel and close to that in a two-incher.
The low recoil and muzzle blast both
encourage practice and allow someone under
stress to deliver as much accuracy as their
skills can generate.

Another advantage of the wadcutter is one you might not think about: Penetration. The FBI ballistic
protocols assume that a bullet must penetrate an absolute minimum of 12 inches of gelatin in order for it
to be considered an effective defensive load. And, more is better, until the penetration exceeds 18 inches,
then the extra penetration is considered wasted energy. There, the wadcutter bullet actually demonstrates
an embarrassment of riches; it will easily penetrate well past the 12-inch mark, and depending on how
hard an alloy the bullet is made of, more than 20 inches is possible.

Wadcutters fired through the same media give identical shape but with less recoil and better accuracy.

So the benefits are accuracy, low recoil, deep penetration and low muzzle blast. What are the
drawbacks?

First, factory ammunition is made with soft, swaged-lead bullets. Such bullets will dig in on curved
obstacles, but they are thought to deform too easily for our needs.

The softness is seen to limit penetration on chance objects and hard structures, but unless you’re
shooting through walls, cars, or other hard cover, this is really a nonissue.

Also, if your shot happens to need to plow through the bad guy’s arm to reach vital organs, the hard
bones of the upper arm can significantly slow a swaged wadcutter. However, if he’s hiding behind a
sheet of plywood, a wall, or a table, it won’t help him much at all.

Second, shooters might have a lack of confidence in using “just a target load.” After all, it doesn’t have a
lot of recoil, muzzle blast and flash. Me, I figure what happens downrange is important, not what
happens at the end of my arm.
To figure out if wadcutters have any promise at all, I tested a couple of
them and some other .38 ammo in gelatin. My test gun was a Ruger LCR,
a polymer-framed five-shot snubbie–a definite “value for money” carry
gun, and one that is most decidedly un-fun to shoot with the most robust
hollowpoint loads.

The Remington swaged wadcutter penetrated well, and the hard-cast

Oregon Trails double-ended wadcutters shot through an impressive pile of
gelatin. For the sedate velocities they posted, going more than two feet
deep in gelatin is impressive.

I also tried a hollow-point and a practice FMJ load, and the velocity of those loads was not encouraging.
At an average 735 fps from the two-inch barrel, the 125-grain JHPs were barely expanding.

I tried all the loads through a sheet of half-inch plywood and found the penetration decreased, but still
more than sufficient.

Are wadcutter bullets good for defense? If the most robust hollowpoints are “too much” in recoil, a
wadcutter is certainly better than a lead roundnose. You won’t lack for accuracy, and practice will not be
onerous. And as a bonus, that beautiful, perfect hole they cut in paper and cardboard, will be cut in your
attacker as well. Wadcutters don’t push through, the CUT through. Nasty, nasty.

As for confidence in wadcutters as a defensive load, I have to go with the advice of a long-since retired
Detroit police officer, who was commenting on his choice of the .32 ACP. “They’re all goners if you
shoot them between the shirt pockets,” he said.

In the case of the .38 wadcutter load, I really don’t think, if you do as he said and plant your shots
“between the pockets” on a bad guy that he’s going to be casually brushing his shirt and complaining
“Hey, that hurts.” As always, shot placement is what counts.

The SUPER Low Recoil Self Defense Round...

A load that has gotten my undivided attention, is the 100 Grain hard-cast double-ended Wadcutter at 800
FPS. From a 2 inch snub nosed revolver it makes 750+ FPS. A 100 grain .38 caliber projectile exiting
the muzzle at 750 to 800 FPS delivers 125 foot pounds of energy (FPE) at the muzzle (142 FPE at
800FPS). Now that may not sound like much, but it’s nearly twice the energy of a hot 40 grain .22LR,
and more than a hot 45 grain .22 magnum with more than twice the bullet weight and three times the
hole size. The best part of this round however, is that in the lightest .38 revolver on earth (13 ounces), it
has the recoil impulse of a .22 magnum (read: virtually 0). It delivers more punch than a 98 grain .32
long with a bullet that has 16% more surface area and generates less recoil. To my mind, that’s a
winning combination for someone who cannot, or will not deal with the punishing recoil of a standard
velocity, or +P .38 round in a light weight gun, or anyone else for that matter. This round may very well
be, the world champion of highly effective, super low recoiling, self defense rounds.

A standard 148 grain wadcutter at 800 FPS will generate 210 FPE at the muzzle. This is a long standing,
accepted, and frequently used self defense round by those in the know. The problem is, that a bullet of
that weight, moving at that speed, produces too much recoil for many in an ultra-light revolver. In a 25
to 30 ounce all steel gun, the 148 grain wadcutter is a pleasure to shoot, whereas the 100 grain wadcutter
is a pleasure to shoot in ANY gun.
Is the 100 grain WC a viable option? Yes, it absolutely is, and a damn good one. Any gun is better than
no gun, and a gun that you can shoot accurately and quickly is the best of the lot. The 100 WC offers
minimal recoil, excellent accuracy, and very fast followup shots (a 200 grain double tap (100+100) at
750 FPS is the equivalent of a 200 grain .45ACP with TWO wound channels). Additionally, this 100
grain pill moving at the speed it does, still consistently delivers a minimum of 14+ inches of penetration,
exceeding the FBI standards for effectiveness.

Tales from the dark side...

Many years ago, two burglars broke into the ammo locker at our local P.D. pistol range and stole some
ammo. It was .38 Special, loaded with 2.7 grains of Bullseye and a 148 grain full wadcutter. This was
the mild load we used for practice in those days, one of several million rounds loaded on an old Rosan
auto-loader.

They next traveled about a mile down the road and broke into a small business, apparently looking for
cash. The business owner lived upstairs, confronted the two men, and was shot with one of the .38
wadcutters. The bullet struck center chest (perfect shot placement), passed through the heart, entire chest
area, glanced off the spine, and was recovered from the lower left back kidney area of the body, just
under the skin. Keep in mind, this was considered a mild wadcutter load. Since that day, I have never
felt unsafe carrying a 2" .38 loaded with wadcutters for self defense. The load is extremely accurate and
quick and easy for follow-up shots.

• Unlike almost anyone else, Jim Cirillo got to see the before, during and after of the gunfight (19 times),
and make observations from a gun nut/bullet guy/hunter/reloader perspective.

Although his observations may at times have been "anecdotal" they were certainly accurate, and the
advice of a guy who walked away from 19 gun fights without a scratch needs to be taken seriously.

Like Dr. Fackler, Jim was an advocate of pistol bullets that had a cutting edge to them, and observed
that RNL, FMJ and even many (most?) expanded JHPs were of a rounded shape that made them less
effective at tissue crush than they could have been
if they had a flat, cutting wadcutter shape. For
what it’s worth, both of Jim’s duty snub nosed
revolvers were always loaded with wadcutters
(that DIDN’T ricochet off the bad guys skulls).

Tactical Briefs #9... 2-inch .38 snubs

There seems to be no JHP bullet cartridge that is
capable of providing a reasonable balance of
adequate penetration and reliable expansion. A
bullet that expands will not penetrate deeply
enough, whereas a bullet that does not expand
will probably overpenetrate.

As a result, we feel the best cartridge for .38

snubbies is the wadcutter target load.
(MacPherson, Duncan: Bullet Penetration, Ballistic Publications, El Segundo, California, 1994. p. 247,
Figure 10-2 Cylinder Bullet Penetration Depth.) The sharp-edged shoulder of the full wadcutter design
provides the best penetration and wounding efficiency for this gun/cartridge combination.
.38 Special Snubby Ammo -- Two Cartridges Tested...
We recently tested two .38 Special loads using the water-filled half-gallon milk carton procedure
published in Tactical Briefs #3, "A Simple Method for Testing Bullets with Your Guns." An Oehler
model 35 proof chronograph was used to measure bullet velocity prior to impact with the milk
cartons. The distance between the muzzle of the handgun and the first water-filled milk carton was
approximately 20 feet.

After each test shot was completed, the

number of milk cartons in which the bullet
penetrated was counted, including the carton
where the bullet came to rest. Estimated
bullet penetration of standard ordnance
gelatin/soft tissue is calculated by
multiplying the number of cartons penetrated
by 2.5, as prescribed by Cotey.1 Results are
as follows:

Federal .38 Special 110 grain Premium

Personal Defense HydraShok JHP (11/7/98):

Test Gun:  Smith & Wesson model 60

revolver, 2-inch barrel
Test Medium:  Water-filled half-gallon
cardboard milk cartons

Three shot averages: Velocity 792 fps,

penetration approximately 20 inches, no
expansion of the bullets observed.
Notes: Federal product # PD38HS3, lot #
120149W156.  Bullet velocity advertised by
Federal is 1000 fps (4-inch test barrel). 

.38 Special CCI 148 grain Blazer WC TMJ

Cleanfire (11/7/98):

Test Gun:  Smith & Wesson model 60

revolver, 2-inch barrel
Test Medium:  Water-filled half-gallon
cardboard milk cartons

Three shot averages: Velocity 779 fps,

penetration approximately 20 inches.

Notes: CCI product # 3470, lot # B21A24.  Bullet velocity advertised by CCI is 710 fps (4-inch test
barrel).We compare our test results to MacPherson's penetration model to validate the accuracy of our
estimated penetration.

None of the Federal 110-grain JHP bullets expanded. Each bullet retained its pre-fired truncated cone
shape. Our average penetration measurement is reasonably close to MacPherson's model for a 115-
grain .38 caliber truncated cone bullet, propelled at 790 fps. Figure 10-3 Truncated Cone Bullet
Penetration Depth (Curve D, p. 248) shows a model penetration depth of approximately 23 inches in
standard ordnance gelatin and soft tissue. The 3-inch difference between our test results and
MacPherson's model can be explained by the 5-grain difference in bullet weight, the inexact nature of
our test method, and possible dynamic differences between an unexpanded open tip hollowpoint bullet
versus the meplat of a closed tip TC bullet.

Our average penetration result for the CCI 148-grain wadcutter bullet is identical to MacPherson's
model. According to Figure 10-2 Cylinder Bullet Penetration Depth, Curve B (145-grain bullet, 780 fps),
the model indicates a penetration depth of approximately 20 inches of standard gelatin or flesh (p. 247).2

It appears the Federal 110-grain Personal Defense HydraShok bullet doesn't achieve sufficient velocity
necessary to cause the bullet to expand, when fired out of a short 2-inch barreled revolver. Water usually
produces slightly greater JHP bullet expansion than gelatin and soft tissue. Therefore, if a bullet doesn't
expand in water, it is highly unlikely to expand in an attacker's body.

The unexpanded, streamlined, and less wound efficient truncated cone shape allowed the light Federal
110-grain Personal Defense HydraShok bullet to penetrate as deeply as the heavier, cylindrical shaped
CCI wadcutter bullet, although both were propelled at similar velocities.

Personal testing with the 100 grain double-ended wadcutter (750 to 800 FPS) noted herein above,
demonstrated consistent penetration of 14 to 18 inches of 1 gallon water jugs after passing through 4
layers of denim.

References/End Notes:

1.  According to Cotey: "Penetration in rows of water-filled, 2-quart (1.89 liter) cartons is approximately 1.5 times that which
would occur in 10% 4 degrees C gelatin. Since a U.S. 2-qt. carton is 3.75 inches (9.525 cm) wide and 3.75/1.5 = 2.5, one
simply multiples the number of the carton in the row from which a test bullet was recovered by 2.5 to determine approximate
gelatin penetration in inches or by 6.35 for the reading in centimeter. For example, a shot recovered from carton #6 would
correspond to a gelatin penetration depth of approximately 15 inches (38.1 cm). (Cotey, Gus Jr.:"Number 1 Buckshot, the
Number 1 Choice." Wound Ballistics Review, 2(4): p. 11; 1996.)

Violence is seldom the answer, but when it is the answer, it is the only answer.

What you hit him with isn’t nearly as important as where you hit him, and how many
times you hit him in rapid succession.