Time for a little education on wadcutters.
This quote /opinion is something I hear often from people who really don't know much about the topic.
"but IMO they are not the best for SD. Yes, better than a knife but they won't expand and because of their shape, penetration might suffer a bit. "
As a preface, I will say that I have a background not only locally and on the state level but also on the fed side as a firearms instructor as well as armorer, and did a fair bit of ammunition testing over the decades.
The whole reason why wadcutters have been traditionally chosen to be used in short barrel revolvers is consistency. Due to their barrel like profile they don't really expand. They don't need to. What they do is penetrate. They penetrate deep and straight. Extremely consistently, over and over.
Other designs like hollow points have proven over the years to be very sporadic in terms of expansion from 1& 7/8ths" revolvers. Sometimes they do, sometimes they don't. Also, their penetration tends to be inconsistent as compared to wadcutters. The wadcutter is not trying to open up to work. It is simply cutting a cookie cutter hole, driving a consistent depth into its target.
As far as "what LE carries", Wadcutters have been carried by smart cops for many decades. I carried wadcutters my entire career in my J Frame 442, as did many of the more switched guys who carried J Frames. Fortunately I had good mentors who showed me "the way".
Now with that career behind me, I own a small custom ammo shop and sell more wadcutters to folks carrying small revolvers than any other type of revolver ammo.
You really don't need to push the wadcutters into +P range either. In fact it is counter productive, as it makes the gun simply harder to shoot quickly and accurately. However John Q public is typically poorly informed and usually will buy whatever is fastest thinking that is "bestest" without ever actually doing any personal performance testing. If they went out and did some tests with a timer they would quickly see that they were slower with the +P ammo in a J Frame, due to the nasty sharp recoil, and would be far better off with standard velocity. Good quality center mass hits matter, not making noise.
My old 442 has many miles on it now. Over 7K rounds through it, since it was given to me as a graduation gift from a state police academy. It got carried daily, used as a teaching gun and served me well.
It is a little rough cosmetic wise, but it is like a very trusted old friend.
Not too long ago I did a project with Lispey's and created a new wadcutter load specifically for the new Ultimate Carry .32 H&R J Frame. It is a 100 grain Wadcutter. Long story short, it has been immensely popular. In fact when the guns were released at SHOT this year it got crazy here and I have been trying to keep up with demand since.
The little 432 is an amazing little J Frame and I keep it loaded with wadcutters as well. In fact it has been riding in my pocket daily. LOVE that gun and the WCs penetrate between 22 and 24"s which is plenty.
Long story short, Wadcutters Work, and they work great.
Hopefully this will help someone.
