- Particularly with the popularity of lightweight or ultralight, small-frame revolvers, excessive recoil may be a problem.
This may even be an issue for users of small, steel-frame revolvers, more so if they are fitted with small grips for more
discreet carry. Target loads using wadcutter - cylindrical - bullets are loaded to relatively low velociy and generate
proportonally lower recoil.
- While these bullets do not expand at the front - also an issue with many hollopwpoint bullets at the low velocities generated
from 2" barrels - their relatively sharp edges make them punch a full-caliber wound channel through soft tisuue. This tends to
make them more effective than a round-nose bullet, including a hollowpoint bullet that fails to expand.
- Traditional, factory-loaded wadcutters for target competition are loaded with relatively soft, hollowbase lead bullets
whose cavities are intended are intended to expand slightly, while still in the barrel, for maximum engagement of the rifling.
- Some people have expressed concern that if part of the edge of such a soft bullet strikes bone - such as the edge of a rib -
the bullet may lose part of its sharp edge. However, the bullet will still be spinning for the remainder of its path through
tissue. On the other hand, in gelatin testing, some of these bullets - typically those traveling at least 700 fps - may
flare at the rear, as is sometimes seen with the similarly hollowbase Foster shotgun slugs.
- The 148 gr. offerings from the American "Big Three" ammunition makers - Federal, Remington and Winchester - as well as
from Brazil's Magtech typically attain a velocity of between 650 and 700 feet per second (fps) from a 2" barrel. Based on
testing in synthetic gelatin - which may allow slightly deeper penetration than the original calibrated 10% ballistic
gelatin - these loads seem to meet or closely approach the FBI standards for penetration in all protocols except sheet-metal
barrier. This should deep enough to reach vital organs, with little danger from overpenetration.
- Turning to some smaller American ammunition makers:
- Georgia Arms offers an "Ultimate Defense snub nose" load rated at a full 750 fps from a 2" barrel, albeit in the price range
of some "premium" hollowpoint ammunition.
- Doubletap Ammunition offers a more reasonably priced 148 gr. wadcutter load rated at 740 fps from a 2" barrel using a
"hardcast" bullet intended to resist deformation should it strike bone.
- For larger-frame revolvers with short barrels - in which recoil may not be as much of an issue - Buffalo Bore offers a
hotter 150 gr. hardcast wadcutter load (~870 fps from a 2" barrel) that may be of interest to those more concerned with penetration -
perhaps in four-legged predators - than with recoil.
- These cylindrical bullets are usually loaded flush with the mouth of the case and may not allow the fastest reloads. If
this is a concern to you, you may choose to charge your speedloaders or speed strips with a standard-pressure hollowpoint,
such as Hornady's Critical Defense load, which will not create that much more recoil, should you need to keep shooting
after reloading. Particularly if you're willing to carry such an alternate load in speed strips or a pouch, here's a trick that
may help you also use wadcutters in a speedloader:
- Charge your loader with one round of the load with the conventionally shaped bullet and wadcutters for the rest.
Orient the loader in its carrier so, that when you draw it, the round with the projecting
bullet will align readily with the empty chamber around 11:00 on the cylinder, with the action open. Once that round starts
into that chamber, it should take no more than a slight wiggle for the wadcutters to find their alignments.
- With the longer, alternate round in that chamber, it should end up under the hammer when the cylinder is swung closed. That
means that it won't be fired until the last round of that cylinder, if the fight runs that long.
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