Not all wadcutters are created equal.

At a place I used to work we found ourselves neck deep in Fiocchi 148gr wadcutter target ammo. It was ridiculously accurate stuff and a pleasure to shoot out of any 38. The sales manager recommended it often to purchasers of J frames for carry or nightstand ammo.

Having killed a pile of animals with lead bullets in handguns at modest velocities and knowing what a big flat nose is capable of, I agreed with his recommendation. Until one afternoon as we were having an informal shooting match in the back of the shop and I noticed that I could easily see these wadcutters in flight. Not a big deal, you can see 230gr Hardball out of a full size 1911 if you get the light just right. We then discovered that the soft wadcutters even at their low velocity would rivet and expand and give zero penetration on a sheet of 3/8” rubber conveyor belt we covered the bullet trap with, not confidence inspiring.
A little research showed nearly the same performance from other brands of match wadcutter ammo.

But having experience as stated above with killing animals up to half a ton with revolver and auto pistol cartridges, almost exclusively using cast bullets, I knew the wadcutter shape was good the issue was with the butter soft swaged bullets at very pedestrian velocities.

I have since found through experience that a cast, as opposed to swage, wadcutter and they needn’t be overly hard. Loaded to just standard 38 speeds produced by the standard 158RN, is a pretty impressive performer. They will give better penetration than any HP that actually opens, a winter coat isn’t stopping one. And they will give the best possible wound channel of a non expanding bullet. They probably aren’t going to be impressive shooting through the side of a car but nothing else you load in your Chief Special is either.

Bullets cast from wheel weights in an H&G 50 mold and loaded over 5gr of Unique, 5.5gr Power Pistol, or 4gr of W231 are a good place to be.