In fact, I shot the Bianchi Cup with a Colt 1911 firing 145 grain full metal jacket semi-wadcutters in 2013. & If you own a revolver, especially one chambered in .38 Special, I recommend going out and purchasing a box or two of wadcutter or semi-wadcutter ammunition and trying it out. Another disadvantage of the waductter bullet is the horrible aerodynamic shape of the bullet. Why add this to the article? Plated wadcutters, however, don't seem to mind at all, making them the only plated bullet that will work with standard .38 dies. Your Industry Needs YOUR Expert Voice Bullseye shooters also use semi-wadcutters in semi-automatic pistols. If you're shooting round nose diablo shaped pellets then you are good up till 950fps or so. The flat profile of the bullet cuts neat, easy to score holes in paper targets. Originally intended for target shooting, semi-wadcutters gained popularity for hunting after legendary gunwriter Elmer Keith designed a semi-wadcutter for hunting. This restricts the use of wadcutters to relatively close range (<50 yards). Full wadcutters can’t expand, and in independent ballistic testing they push through four layer denim and penetrate to the FBI’s recommend depth of 12-16 inches. © 2015-2020 TargetBarn, LLC. The modern lead pellet that we now shoot in our airguns is most often taken for granted. A semi-wadcutter bullet was also the basis for the famous “FBI load” – a 158 grain lead semi-wadcutter bullet, that deleted the flat nose in favor of a hollow point. There are three reasons you might select wadcutters for self defense. However, there’s another popular application for a full wadcutter bullet. The Old Standards John McAdams is a proficient blogger, longtime hunter, experienced shooter, and veteran of combat tours with the U.S. Army in Iraq and Afghanistan. However, it struggles in applications outside of its primary use. Just this past week a young woman who already carries concealed asked me to recommend a CCW revolver. Every cop on the beat carried one, and this was reflected in the competitive shooting world. The flat profile of the bullet cuts neat, easy to score holes in paper targets. It’s not all great with wadcutters, because in one area they don’t shine at all: reloading. I've read about hand-loaders taking hollow-base wadcutter bullets and seating them upside down for use as self-defense ammunition, but results were often erratic. Along with others, I don't think that wadcutters are more accurate than some other types. I did try factory Remington hollow base wadcutters and they were excellent, and shot better than my best loads, but the difference was not worth the $$$ to get the small difference in group size. I've still got some hollow-base .38 wadcutters loaded backwards into .357 cases. With my model 52 I shoot 2.8 grains of Bullseye with Remington 148 HBWC. Some wadcutters have a flat base, but bullets with a hollow base are probably more common. A wadcutter has a flat or nearly flat front that is typically as wide as the caliber size or only slightly smaller in diameter than caliber size. Wadcutters are commonly (though not always) loaded so that the bullet is completely encased in the case. Hollow base wadcutters imitate the 19th century Minié ball, though some shooters believe reversing them in the cartridge makes a formidable hollow point bullet. We've got the platform you need. The flat shape of the nose is the primary feature of the wadcutter. More powerful is more reliable at incapacitating an attacker, and expanding ammunition is crucial to maximizing a round's potential. Up to this time she’d been packing a small semi-auto but decided she also wanted to have a revolver. Wadcutter bullets are almost always unjacketed and made of lead. This makes the rounds more accurate, which is … More's the pity. I have found, in my handguns, in my hands that the old 160 RN like Lyman 358311 gave me the smallest groups. Semi-wadcutters generally have a shorter bearing surface than traditional wadcutters. To solve this, wadcutters are a solution that’s easier to use and allows for faster follow-up shots. Also, a SWC is typically longer than a flat-nose of the same weight. Your information about the adequate penetration of wadcutter ammo coupled with the fact that the shooter will be more easily able to deliver their shots to the best locations on their target is correct and … While the wadcutter has an entirely flat front, a semi-wadcutter looks like someone put a cone on top of a wadcutter, then cut the tip of the cone off. Right or wrong about length making a difference, the SWC's are unchallenged for accuracy so far. As a result, full wadcutter bullets are almost always used in revolvers, with .38 Special being the most common caliber. For example, a .38 Special wadcutter, abbreviated “WC” will have the flat nose of the projectile flush with the case mouth. Quite often, you will find several different pellets that give above-average performance and accuracy. Wednesday, September 03, 2014. I’ve bought into it. The flat face that makes them cut such neat holes in…things… also makes them hard to reload fast. Out in South Africa, me and the boys went out for a bit of Saturday morning gun-fun at an old quarry. Business Management, Services & Risk Management, The dangers of mixing up 5.56x45mm NATO and .223 Remington rounds, How to properly sight in a rifle with a scope, Battery issues: Understanding your RV’s electrical systems, The advantages of using a .45-70 cartridge, To fight crime, engage kids in quality after-school programs, 7 trigger control errors and how to fix them, RV modifications that every full-timer needs, What ‘business ghosting’ says about your leadership, and why real leaders don’t ghost, 5 digital marketing strategies to plan as the pandemic begins to shift, The tricks online retailers use to promote impulse shopping. 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