To put it as simple as possible, the 148 wadcutter is a target bullet, designed to punch neat clean holes in paper/cardboard.  It will put a hurt on someone but is not designed to hunting or self defense.  Since it is a soft target bullet being pushed at moderately slow speed you can't expect to get serious penetration.

Now for a defensive/hunting application a 158 grain semi-wadcutter or round nose will perform much better. I don't know what bullet molds are available to you in SA.

The difference you're seeing in penetration is a function of the velocities involved. That heavier wadcutter is probably traveling around 650 FPS (Feet Per Second), and has a much larger frontal area than the 124 gr, but the 9mm is going around 900 FPS due to the smaller case capacity, and has less frontal area since it's a truncated cone design. The listed velocities assume you are actually shooting 700X. BTW, the 9mm load is below the starting charge for 9mm. Either caliber could probably handle another 1 grain of powder, but you need to work up to this level, don't try it all at once.

It seems kinda obvious to me. One is slower and less pointed while the other is faster and pointed.

You describe it in your description of the vidio. The waddcuter with its large frontal area pushes a lot of material.

Did the vidio also describe how a truncated cone punches though without opening a large wound channel.

If you read your own post you answered your question.

Motor

ETA: Oh and there is a huge difference between wood and flesh.

I would not be surprised if I would stick to Wadcutters only in 38 spl/357 mag revolvers.





Today one medium big calf was dieying. After being dead I thought I would try one of the 3.0 grain loaded Wadcutters on it to verify penetration on meet. From about 6 meters I shot it into the belly (rib area). The Wadcutter hit an rib on the entrance wound and exited without any problem at the other side of the rib area. I saw it continueing its path with force but could not retrieve the proyectile. Blood was pouring in a stream from the exit wound (before I lifted up the animal it had laying dead on that side for a couple of minutes). The exit hole was bigger than the full diameter nicely round cut entrance wound. As I saw the fluid streaming out of the exit hole I realised the importance of blood loss in order best is big entrance and exit hole for primary cavity (better is there is an exit hole as well so from 2 holes poures the liquid out).

I believe this proyectile did not deform at all. The proyectiles I shot before at wood all deformed and today I realised the Wadcutters had tumbled and because of hitting with its longside the second wood they did not penetrate it.


I guess I will order the Lee 148 grain Tumble Lube Wadcutter as well and load the Wadcutters with more powder.
 

One thing comes to my mind.



Why is the Wadcutter such an underperforming bullet for defense if the 45 ACP travels as slow as well?

They should be kind of similar performance just in different calibers.



Any ideas about

45 ACP versus 357 mag Wadcutter (148 grain Lee full WC)

Hi again,
I made a few empirical test again although I bet on you
guys are waiting for the chrono data in order to be sure.


But empirical
Trial-error is my only possibility to date so I include again some photos of
Penetration. These both are shot from an distance of 45 meters.
First photo is te ENTRACE on the first Wood and
the second Wood I Show as well to see the Penetration. The big hole is the lead
Lee 148 Wadcutter with 3.4 grain of powder. It clearly tumbled upon Impact and
almost turned 70 degrees as it hit the second Wood which it did not penetrate.
The bullet has an Diameter of .651" (Surface which hit the 2nd wood bout 70
degrees sideways).


The other entrance to see is from an PMC factory 9mm Luger
bullet. The entrance hole is way smaller but it penetrated 3 Woods and continued
it's path furtheron.





Second photo is the EXIT holes of the first
Wood and you can observe the Wadcutter made an way bigger Exit hole as the 9mm
Luger. The WC just ripped through as Long as it had momentum.








See
both photos








The
lack of Penetration of the Wadcutter may be due to it being soft lead. As
I stated before in soft tissue, as the dead 120 lbs calf, the Wadcutter may not
deform and did an good Job as it exited the animal and continued it's path. I do
not think the WC tumbled in the dead animal but went straight through.


Maybe
as well the lack of Penetration of the Wadcutter is due to it Encounters an
hard Surface (in hard medium it may lack Penetration but in soft tissue
medium it may perform very well.





Sellier&Bellot state for their 9mm
Luger FMJ an Ballistic Coefficient of 1.56 meanwhile the Lee 148 grain Wadcutter
has an BC of 0.72. So the calculation would be as follows: 1.56/0.72= 2.166. So
the 9mm Luger FMJ factory round will have an 2.166 times more Penetration. That
means if the WC penetrates 1 Wood the 9mm Luger should penetrate just over 2
Woods. But it did 3 Woods. The additional Wood penetrated by the FMJ may due to
harder bullet and maybe the factory round had more powder in it.


Once again
the BC confirms empirical data and vice versa.

 

My experience and Pictures demonstrate as well that the WC does not tumble (at
least within 45 meters). But I am a Little confused.



a) Some sources say
Wadcutters are MORE prone to tumble due to their cilyndrical shape.

b)
Other sources say a bullet has to be NOSE HEAVY in order to NOT to tumble
(Kind of 7/8 oz Lee drive key slug. The 1 oz Lee drive key slug supposed to
tumble because it has ist weight evenly distributed like an cilyndrical shape
WC). The 7/8 oz Lee slug falls allways on it's nose (I have that mold).

c)
Again others say an Semi Wadcutter does NOT tumble because ist nose has
LESS WEIGHT and the main weight is more in the centre of the bullet (those Claim
the WC is an tumbler after 50 Yards. For them the WC is the worst tumbler
ever!). These People Claim, that is the reason the hollow Point is very accurate
since it's nose is light and the weight is more in the centre of the
bullet.



So I am a Little confused.

But yes my WC at least never
tumbled at Impact of any distances. Only within the media it started to jaw. I
Attribute that to it being an lead bullet. Lead will go the least
resistance since it deforms easy.

I saw in other Forums an older form of
early SWC called Himmelwright design.

http://www.lasc.us/429220-9.jpg



My
thoughts:

As I saw that (Himmelwright) design I liked it. Seems to be an
fairly hefty Wadcutter with an longer round nose. The round nose is not to small
nor to big. The Long small nose I guess will act as an nail for Penetration; or
it breaks off after Penetration for a second wound channel. The rest of the
Himmlwright Body Looks like an full Wadcutter (big hole). What seems practical
to me is the small Diameter but long round nose in front of the Wadcutter.
Wished Lee would make that design.

Anyone experience
with These Himmelwright and comparison to Wadcutters?

Today I made a few more shots at Wood to compare Penetration. These are the
results (Shooting is from 45 meters distance):

I shot Lee 124 grain TC
TL and 148 grain Wadcutters seated like Nagant style in 38 spl cases. And
FMJ reloads in 9mm Luger and 124 grain TC TL lead bullets loaded (OAL 1.044") in
9mm Luger.



1. The lead bullets all penetrated just one sheet.
Therefore the Lee 148 grain Wadcutter (Nagant style seated WC from before
Shootings) had the same Penetration than the the deep seated (again Nagant
style) 38 spl with the Lee 124 grain TC TL lead bullet. As well the Lee 124
grain TC TL lead bullet loaded in 9mm Luger case had only similar Penetration
than the Nagant style 38 spl deep seated WC and TC.



2. Winchester 9mm
Luger FMJ 115 grain hollow base did have ALLWAYS more Penetration than all lead
bullets. It penetrated in average 2 Sheets of Wood. The factory ammo penetrated
3+ Sheets of Wood which is due to more powder I guess.

Powder Charge was
the same (or similar) for 124 grain TC in 9mm Luger, Nagant style seated 124
grain TC and 148 grain WC in 38 spl cases.



3. The lead 124 grain TC
TL bullets loaded in 9mm Luger had about a month of curing time. Those had a tad
more Penetration than the newly cast WC. The indents were a Little deeper. It
probably is due to the harder lead bullet.



4. Regardless the shape of the
lead bullet those had all similar Penetration. The FMJ had allways more
Penetration than any lead bullet.



5. The recovered lead bullets expanded
about: the 148 grain Wadcutter expanded from .61" to .65" and the 124
grain Truncated Cone from .57" to .69".



Maybe we could try some
conclusions (Penetration in hard media):

The Penetration depends on FMJ
or lead as bullet material. The Penetration does NOT depend that much of lead
bullet shape in hard media. Lead bullets expanded about equally regardless it's
original weight. The WC made allways a bigger entrance and Exit hole (Overall
more destruction) than the lead TC or FMJ.



If someone
is interested in this please let me know your opinions or any personal
experiances or similar tests made.