Once the factory wadcutters are fired, the inside constriction at the cannelure is entirely gone and I wouldn't worry about it. What I would be more concerned about is how much your sizing die works the case. Most modern die sets size the case to provide an inside diameter of .354-.355" to provide a tight friction-fit with jacketed bullets. If cases are flared only and not expanded to sufficient depth, the tight case body will damage the skirt of an HBWC bullet. This is less a factor in solid, DEWCs unless the bullets are dead-soft. 1:30 tin-lead or wheelweights at 10-12 BHN should be no issue.
I use an RCBS Cowboy sizer which doesn't work the brass as much.
With modern thick-walled .38 Special +P brass dimensioned to provide heavier bullet pull with jacketed bullets, the loaded cartridge diameter over the bullet may exceed SAAMI max. cartridge diameter. If rounds resist chambering in your revolver, the condition can be corrected by running the loaded rounds through the Lee Factory Crimp Die or Redding profile crimper, but be advised you are then sizing the bullet by compression inside the case, and your efforts towards getting a perfect bullet fit in the cylinder throats may be defeated.
In revolvers it usually helps to seat DEWC bullets with one full-diameter driving band outside the case, particularly when shooting .38s in a .357 (see my Highway Patrolman group with +P+ DEWCs) so that it can aid maintaining alignment of rounds in the chambers upon discharge. A fast-burning powder like Bullseye will then upset the bullet in the throats, while the throat-sized front band steers it straight, so accuracy is not impaired. In tight-chambered revolvers such as Colt Officers Model Match and Python .38 Special Target you may need to flush-seat, but in those guns accuracy can be amazing, even with full-charge loads.
Attachment 243518Attachment 243519Attachment 243520Attachment 243522
Older Federal wadcutter made before about 1990 had an excellent reputation for accuracy. In the late 1980s there were some issues when Federal wadcutter was fired in .357 Magnum chambers, when the soft bullets transitioned from the 1.155" .38 Special case into the cylinder throats or ball seats in the longer 1.30" .357 chamber, because the HB skirt was unsupported for a short distance in the longer chamber and would upset to fill the available space.
Due to the square shape and positioning of the lubricating grooves, the rear lube groove served as a stress riser. When the base upset, the front end of the bullet continued forward while the inflated skirt was held momentarily by wedging against the chamber cone, causing the bullet to elongate and the skirt to break off in a ductile failure. I witnessed an entire new-agent class undergoing preliminary revolver instruction average 66 hits on a 60 shot tactical revolver course when the agency issued its first class with .357 Magnum Model 13 S&Ws, which replaced the former .38 Special Model 10-8s being used at that time.
Shortly after that Federal changed their wadcutter bullet to a smooth-sided bullet with knurled surface, similar to the Hornady, using a dry lube. That solves the skirt separation problem, but the later ammo was never as accurate or as clean shooting as the former grooved bullets lubricated with Johnson 700 Wax-Draw.
Remington and Winchester wadcutters never had this problem, so far as I know, because they used a wider, shallower, radiussed knurling tool on their bullets, which presented a greater area of lubricant to the bore surface. The Remington 148-grain HBWC component bullet is the only hollow-based one I know of which will maintain normal target accuracy at 50 yards even when loaded with full charges of 3.5 grains of Bullseye or TiteGroup or 4 grains of W231 or HP38.
I used to prefer the Winchester bullets back when I could get them and they were the best. They also used the Johnson 700 wax-draw lube also used by Federal. But the Remington bullets, lubricated with graphite and Japan wax, properly loaded will shoot 1-1/2" ten-shot groups at 50 yards from a good custom PPC revolver.
About 2" to 2-1/2" for ten-shot groups at 50 yards, from a good PPC gun or test barrel is the best you can expect as a long-run average firing good cast bullets, unless you go to "extreme measures." These are:
1) always load the sprue-cut forward
2) Use a straight-line Wilson-type seater in an arbor press
3) Always seating and crimp in separate operations, using the Redding Profile crimper.
4) Always hand-seat Federal 100 or Remington 1-1/2 primers in a clean primer pocket in which the flash holes have been uniformed and the primer pockets cut to uniform depth.
5) Use only cases trimmed to uniform length which are sorted into like batches of +/- 1 grain.
6) Use bullets which are perfect to visual inspection and checked weighed, using the center 2-sigma of your normal distribution. The outliers will also shoot well, but should be lotted up separately, rather than being mixed with the others. Weight variation is more due to alloy variation than to shrinkage porosity or voids, if your casting technique is correct. But should some bullets have minor imperfections at the sprue cut, always orienting the sprue forward reduces any adverse effects upon grouping.
Paying attention to the above, your handloads can shoot as well as good old factory stuff, and certainly better than 95% of the wadcutter ammo sold today which only has to go BANG~! in CCW classes.