The Hatcher Report on handgun stopping power, written after the Phillipine conflict at the turn of the last century, concluded that, for sub-sonic rounds, only caliber had any effect on stopping power, i.e., knocking down a man with only one shot. The Report was written after soldiers equipped with .38s kept having the crazy Phillipine rebels keep fighting. That led to the creation and issuance of the 1911 .45. I haven't seen anything since that suggests any different. Incidentally, the Report also found that hollow points made no difference, again with a sub-sonic round. Jeff Cooper took all this info to heart, and recommends wad-cutters for the accuracy and ease of handling. Military ball ammo, I understand, made the 1911 more difficult to shoot than it needed to be. When the Army studied the gun and then started issuing Baretta 9 mms., it should instead have changed the 1911 load and bullet.
Waddies will now and then present you with ramp fouling in the .45, not too bad if you clean it after every session but that's not always possible in the field. I like them in my .38 spls especially in the summertime; in the winter when heavier clothing is worn I'll go to a semijacketed hollow. With the .45 mine (Colt Commander and Kimber) seem to gobble up just about anything I'm silly enough to stick in there. I have a couple LEO friends who swear by the 185-gr Golden Sabres but I stick with the 230-gr hollows. My gunsmith brother calls them "flying ashtrays."
There is no difference in handling and no practical difference in accuracy between ball and SWC ammo. The only thing you get with semi wadcutters is cleaner hole in paper targets for easy scoring.
Full wadcutters with a large meplat have a greater wounding effect in soft tissue than ball, but generally won't feed in autos.
I was acquainted with a guy in the early 60's that had been in the philiphines with the O.S.S. and while working his radio looked down to see about 2 foot of Jap bayounet sticking through his belly.
Said he turned and shot the jap with his .45, blowing the jap back, and in turn pulling the bayounet with him. He returned to tapping out his message and once again found the big sticker sticking through his belly and again shot the jap.
It happened a third time and then he shot the jap in the head. I asked how the jap had been able to get up and the guy told me that the particular jap sticking him had wrapped himself in a mat of small thin bamboo, which kept the exit wounds bound together, and that at that time they were usually doped up.
Should have been a head shot on the first one. In the 70's, I was aquainted with Jack Weaver (for you shooters, he is the guy that the "Weaver" stance is named for).
Jack could keep an empty beer can in the air with a gvt. model .45 (usually my beer can, cause Jack drank mickey wide mouth which is in a bottle).