Wad - A disc of paper, felt, cork, plastic or other material used primarily in shotshells to separate powder from shot. Can be over-powder, filler or a combination of these. Speer shot capsules for handguns feature a wad to seal the bore.


Wadcutter - A cylindrical, sharp-shouldered bullet, usually for a revolver, designed to cut a clean round hole in a paper target for maximum score in competition.


WCF - Winchester Center Fire. A proprietary name applied to several cartridges developed by Winchester


Web - That part of a cartridge case between the bottom of the primer pocket and the interior of the case. The web is pierced by the flash hole.


Wildcat - A cartridge formed by altering an existing commercial case to make a style that is not available from ammunition companies. Usually applied to cartridge development by hobbyists instead of industry ballisiticans. SAAMI dimensional and pressure standards do not apply to wildcat cartridges.


Wind Deflection - Lateral change in the path of a projectile due to crosswind effects. Also called "wind drift."


Windage - The amount of sight correction, left or right, applied to compensate for wind deflection of a projectile.


Work-hardening - The change in hardness of metal due to repeated cold flexing or stress. In reloading, continued sizing of a case can work-harden the metal until cracks appear. See annealing.


Working-up - 1. The process of developing a safe maximum load by starting with a lower powder charge and increasing it in small steps only after firing and checking for signs of pressure at each point along the way. 2. Accuracy testing of known safe loads in a step-wise manner.