Wadcutters? Sure, but skills not gear.
Are wadcutters still a good choice for self defense (thinking.38/.357)? I see that a copper/copper coated wadcutter is being offered. If I were to use wadcutters, they would be copper.
We talk so much about equipment because we can. We are conditioned to believe in our liberal dominated society (and by our movies and TV) that the weapon has all the power of intimidation and therefore control. Once the shooting starts however, we think that now the projectile has all the dominating power, hence endless debates about caliber, expansion and penetration, bullet design and velocity etc. This does not hurt my feelings at all.
Can you imagine a fencing match where we all declared that someone lost a competition because the tip of his foil was shaped wrong? Can you imagine me declaring that Jim Bowie was able to kill men with a knife because his was half an inch longer than anybody else's? Your mind goes to the real issue, that what you do in a fight depends upon what your opponent does.
The wadcutter has regained a following as people accepted 2 ideas:
1. Overpenetration is a myth, mainly because every miss is an overpenetration.
2. Expansion is unreliable in short-barreled weapons. Chris Baker at LuckyGunner.com/labs demonstrated that from a 2 incher you can have either a) reliable penetration, which you need if your enemy is moving and turns to the side, or b) reliable expansion which you need if your assailant moves a little to the side of your "shot placement" but not both.
The wadcutter if loaded to adequate velocity, causes as Harris says, "full caliber crush". At self-defense distances, the rounded meplat confers no benefit in flight. In a revolver, a rounded nose does improve reloading efficiency but does not affect weapon function as it does in a semi auto.
It also penetrates as well as +p loads which cannot be used in airweight revolvers, and which many people do not shoot well.
After the Civil War, Southrons debated why the cause was lost and why Gettysburg was lost. Someone asked General Lee for his opinion on the question. He usually remained silent on the whole subject for the rest of his life considering the issue settled by the will of Almighty God. But the nearest thing to an answer he ever gave was to say,
"I always thought that the Yankees had something to do with it."
Thanks for your post I enjoyed the thread. Please correct me anyone, I am not the expert.
