Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Handguns 38 spl

Good to hear all the good things about wadcutters.

Back in the mid-80's I bought my girlfriend a 3" M-60 for a bedside gun, that was the first iteration of the one with the underlug and adjustable sights. (Liked it so much I almost didn't give it to her but that's another story. ) Anyway, with even standard 38 Spl. 158 grain loads the recoil was snappy and she had a hard time shooting accurately. Got her a box of Winchester target wadcutters and she liked those a lot and could hit very well with them, so she kept it loaded with those. We figured it was a lot better to score hits with a mild wadcutter than miss with something more powerful. They were HBWC so I don't know how efficacious they would have been but they gave her confidence and that's a good part of the battle.

My Wife is 69 and has problems with recoil, so I'm thinking like Jim. A hit with a wad cutter is better than a miss with something with more power.

Besides, McKay Sagebrush says he uses them for his BUG, where his life might depend on them. That's good enough for me!

Virgil B.

@Paul39

Paul,

I actually meant EVA foam, not AVE. It is Ethylene Vinyl Acetate. That is the technical term. Most will recognize it as those interlocking foam mats that you can get on Amazon, or Wally world etc.

This is the stuff:



Sorry I missed your question the first time around BTW.

Anybody loaded the Berrys plated dewc in .38 Special. I did so a couple years back with Bullseye and Power Pistol but will have to check the loading bench later for powder weights. Loads were sorta "educated guess" since specific data didn't exist. Loaded them out just short enough to fit and shot them in a Mod15, New Airweight and Colt Cobra. Just blasting ammo, no group measuring or chrono. Would be interested to hear other results.

Virgil,

I appreciate the Kudos.

I spent the day yesterday with Ken Hackathorn and a select group of revolver aficionados and during the course of conversation we discussed the long term effects of shooting heavy recoiling rounds through handguns. KH, myself and a couple others are all pretty much in agreement that very heavy recoiling rounds are detrimental to making fast and accurate hits. They are also detrimental to the long term health of a shooter in the form of arthritis. I can tell you from years of pounding who knows how many top end 44 magnum and .45 Colt loads through guns that my right wrist does not care for it. In fact even tonight after yesterday's session my right wrist is still sore.

Your wife is much better off shooting wadcutters, and practicing with the same than messing with loads that will hurt her. Plus wadcutters have a very good track record of penetration.


The common untested train of though that a person can train with a light load then load a very heavy one and a person will not notice the severe recoil under the stress of a deadly situation is not a road you want to go down. That is a road to severe failure. People have an extremely difficult time doing even basic tasks under life threatening situations, so adding a possible (and likely) injury to their shooting hand is not something I would recommend. I have seen trained people do pretty poorly under duress, so there is no reason to deliberately handicap your wife by setting her up to fail.

Besides, not too many bad guys are going to take a 148 grain wadcutter in the chest or guts and say "Oh that was only a wadcutter, no big deal"..


They even work in N Frames..

A self defense situation isn't likely to be like a gun fight at the OK Coral. A shot, any shot, even if it is a clean miss is very likely to change the bad guys mind that they need to look for a softer target. I kind of like the idea of those red headed +P Hornady bullets peeking out of the dangerous end of the cylinder. Just the sound of me racking the slide on my 1911 cleared two home invaders out of my place. There is a good video on one of these threads explaining the difference in a self defense scenario where the need is to distance yourself vs a law enforcement need to stop the perpetrator.

Mackay Sagebrush always brings excellent insight to these threads."The situation you are in, and the bad guy/guys you face will not change, based upon what you carry. Like unwrapping a present from a stranger, you get what you get, not what you want." This is one of the best statements that I have ever read on deadly force encounters. My take away on this is to always have a gun, it may not be the best for the situation but it is critical that you have one. When we were looking for carry guns for my daughter, we looked at the S&W 442/642 and the Ruger LCR. Both were light enough but still bulky. I have a Colt Magnum Carry that my daughter can handle effectively with Remington 357 Golden Sabre Medium velocity ammo but the bulk is there along with even more weight. We settled on a Beretta Pico in 380, she also looked at a Ruger LCP but liked the Pico better because of the sights. Is it better than a snub nose 357, no it's not but it's not far behind a 38 with wadcutters, ballistics wise. The key is that it is sufficiently small, light and probably most importantly flat that she will realistically carry it. For the statistically typical threat profile she is likely to face, 1 or 2 males within 7 feet face on, it can work. It's better than a rape whistle. It is currently loaded with 380 Hornady XTP's but I may give her the Winchester 380 FMJ flat point to carry for more penetration.

I shoot these in my two 4" S&W's (10&15's)....

http://www.acmebullet.com/bullets-r...lets/38-%20CAL-158-SWC-hard-cast-bullets

And these in my 2" Airweight that lives in my console because Mackay told me to.

https://www.buffalobore.com/index.php?l=product_detail&p=111

Kidding aside....if you read what BB has to say about them they makes perfect sense for a snubbie you don't want to reload for

A good source for hard-cast, well-made bullets. They have a couple of options for 0.359" 140-160 grain solid base wadcutters. They also have 32 and 44 Cal wadcutters.

https://www.mattsbullets.com/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=65

Not loaded ammo.

I am another happy camper using wadcutters in my first 38/357. I had a 2 cav. mold and cast my own. 3.5 or 3.6 of B EYE soon became the favorite load.

With my Dan Wesson 15 I have been able to hit clay pigeons at 100 yards. 1 hit per cylinder full.