Paging Hoot
Regarding your wadcutter stability question down below -- I went out shooting with a buddy of mine this morning, and we decided to gather some data for you. With a .38 caliber 148 grain wadcutter over 3.0 grains of Bullseye (~800 fps), we engaged a number of "targets of opportunity" on the hillsides of our local BLM plinking range, ranging from about 25 yards out to about 175 yards (shooting a 6" S&W Model 14 off of sandbags). We were surprised to find stable, reproducible flight out to about 100 yards (about a foot low, but all very consistently in the same spot). Things were clearly falling apart by about 125 yards (i.e. missing by several feet, both left and right), and things were downright comical at ~175 yards (missing by many yards, in some cases we estimated as much as 20 yards).