Wiktionary
n. (context firearms English) a special-purpose bullet designed for shooting paper targets, usually at close range and at subsonic velocities.
Wikipedia
A wadcutter is a special-purpose flat-fronted bullet specially designed for shooting paper targets, usually at close range and at subsonic velocities typically under approximately 900 ft/s (274 m/s). Wadcutters have also found favor for use in self-defense guns, such as .38 caliber snub-nosed revolvers, where due to short barrel lengths, maximum bullet velocities are usually low, typically under 900 ft/s (274 m/s), and improved lethality is desired. Wadcutters are often used in handgun and airgun competitions.
Usage examples of "wadcutter".
Bobby screamed, clawing at his face even as the wadcutter slug tore away the back of his head and spattered the men behind him with bits of bone and brain.
Bulldog and clones can take anything from light target loads and wadcutter to Colt SofTip dum-dums and worse.
Underneath the case were multiple shelves filled with stacks of ammo, but most of the rounds were half-load wadcutters that would only foul a gun barrel if used too much, and anything live was the wrong caliber, .
Among the centerfires, revolvers make better working guns, not only because they preserve their brass for reloading, but also because you can have several types of loads quickly available -- from shot to mild wadcutters to full power -- by progressive loading of the chambers.
Special wadcutters chewed a ragged hole at twenty-five yards and the Federal 158-grain JSP .
It was lined with green baize and there were little fitted compartments that held a wadcutter, a pewter powderflask, cleaning jags, a patent pewter capper.
He'd used commercial 148-grain wadcutter bullets, swaged from pure lead instead of being cast with an alloy to harden them, ahead of three grains of Bullseye, a powder fast enough to burn almost completely within the snubbie's short barrel.