Shaughn

The potential concern with reloads is not so much their use in a legitimate self defense situation, which one can agree will usually not see light in a criminal court, where rules of evidence are quite stringent, but in Civil court, where rules of evidence are quite different, innuendo and circumstantial evidence and opinions are allowed and how this may play to a jury of your peers is the great unknown.

Expert witnesses can be used to address most questions/claims one may encounter, but the less potentially controversial evidence or something that can be made to look like it by the opposing counsel, the better off you are.

If in doubt consult both criminal and civil liability lawyers and see what their opinion is, you might find it worth a small outlay of funds.

Personally, I only use reloads for hunting and practice and factory loads for carry and that because of employer policy more than anything.

farronwolf

Ok, so make the arguement for someone who lives in a state where you are immune from civil liability if your found to have acted in a justified manner according to your state law.

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Just remember that shot placement is much more important with what you carry than how big a bang you get with each trigger pull.

Shaughn

If in a state or jurisdiction, where one is not subject to civil liability in the event of a legitimate use of force, then I would say that personal choice of the end user and the trust in their personally manufactured ammunition would be the deciding factor.

Things to consider would be:

Failure to feed how many rounds per hundred
Failure to eject
Muzzle flash in low light
Dud rounds per hundred
Mean and practical accuracy
shelf/service life

Tubby45

There is no secret to powder charging. The manufacturers use the same method as handloaders. Dump a volume of powder down a funnel and into a case. Nothing super about it.

The bullets, except Federal's HS series, are all available to handloaders. This includes the XTP, Golden Sabre, Gold Dot, Barnes, etc.

The low flash powder isn't really secret. There are canister powders that do this and give the same performance. The use of non-commercial powders, although exists, is not as prevalent as some make it out to be. For example, all Winchester brand ammunition uses Winchester brass, bullets, powder, and primers. The exact same components they use they sell to handloaders. This is nothing new or privileged.

One can take a Gold Dot bullet and load it to exactly the same velocity as factory ammunition.

In my opinion as an ammunition manufacturer, new brass is overrated and is unproven.

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Freakshow Manufacturing LLC
Ammunition- Retail, Wholesale, Law Enforcement

boscobeans

Aside from the legal issues if I had to load one round into my pistol and my life depended on that round working, I would choose one that I personally loaded and not one that came off of an assembly line. I have seen a few screwed up rounds in boxes of new ammo (granted not that many) and if my butt was on the line I would be leaving nothing to chance.

I used a nice clean brass case with a good flash hole.

I used a nice new primer that I visually inspected (anvil present and looks aligned.)

I seated the primer by hand and felt it slip into place then checked it visually.

I used a powder charge that was chosen to give me the performance that I wanted and knew it was the proper weight.

I seated the right bullet to the right depth and made sure it was held in place by the proper method.

The rest would be up to the Good Lord and either my firing pin or striker.
bosco

mathewsman

I was reading massad adoob book concealed carry and it says always use bought ammo for defensive carry

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NRA sence 2003 Colt defender Taurus .357 mag
Beretta 92FS Brigadier Elite x box gamer tag mathewsman

sgtD

I use factory ammo for carry, but my reloads are fully capable rounds. I usually reload using good hollowpoint projectiles and keep lots of them on hand in case of a zombie uprising or something. lol. And if things get bad enough that I have to dip into my reloads for SD use, no one is going to care much about what kind of ammo I use anyway.

I very rarely reload with plain old cast lead solids or wadcutters. When I do I load them one night and go shoot them at the range within a day or two, becuase that's what they are good for and it saves me more money.

Much of my relaoding is a way for me to build up my "stockpile" at a low price. I have quite a few rounds of nice HP ammo loaded in .38spl and .357 magnum that is in storage just in case I need it someday. It's cheaper than stocking up on factory loads like WWB and it's better ammo. I can't afford to sit on 300 speer gold dot factory loads @ $24 per 20 rounds.

My rifle ammo is all loaded with good bullets, either Hornady Interlock, Noslers, Sierra Gamekings or Remington Core-Lokt. With the exception of .223 which I load about 1/2 and 1/2 winchester soft points and Hornady fmj projectiles. It's a whole lot cheaper for me to make custom ammo with ggod bullets than it is to buy it, and I can tailor my loads to my guns. I do use my 30 cal. rifle ammo (30-30, .308, 30-06) for hunting and would use any of my reloads for SD if needed, without hesitation. Hopefully I never have to, but I build them so that they can fill that niche if needed someday.

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When you've got 'em by the balls, their hearts & minds will follow. Semper Fi.

Landric

Again, what?

The military uses 124 grain NATO ball in 9mm.

The ammunition one uses in a justified self-defense shooting should have absolutely nothing to do with anything. Its possible that it might come up in an investigation or court. The more time I spend in law enforcement (13 years and counting) the less likely I think that is. Specific gun and ammunition knowledge is seriously lacking among most officers I have worked with. I wouldn't count on most of them even considering what kind of ammunition was used, let alone think to ask or otherwise look into whether that ammunition was handloaded. The same goes for DAs and ADAs in my experience. Were I using handloads and involved in a SD shooting I wouldn't mention they were handloads unless specifically asked. Again, in a justified shooting it shouldn't be an issue (at least according to the law), so why muddy the waters providing information that has no legal bearing in the first place. If they want to know, they will ask.

I suppose there is probably a court case or two out there where the use of handloads might have come up, but I suspect its mostly internet and gun rag rumor.

I'd be perfectly comfortable using my handloads for self-defense if I could, provided I followed my own protocol of testing as I mentioned in my first post on this topic. Since my department doesn't allow it, its a non-issue for me. However, if I could, and I found myself carrying say a .38 Special as my primary weapon, I'd more than likely carry my own handloads. The .38 Special loads available from the factory come nowhere close to the potential of the cartridge.

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-Landric

"The Engine could still smile...it seemed to scare them" -Felix

Majorlk

I agree completely. I use factory loads for carrying and handload for every other purpose in all calibers I have: .38, .357, 9mm, .40 S&W, .45 Colt, .221 Fireball, 7mm TCU, .30 carbine and .30-30. The last four are for my Contender. Yes, .30-30 is great in a 14" contender.

As for my carry load, I carry what the Connecticut State Police carries: .40 S&W 155 gr. HydraShoks.

Another Pistol Packin' Preacher.

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An armed society is a polite society. Manners are good when one may have to back up his acts with his life. - Robert A. Heinlein

Majorlk

Not to hijack the thread, but this is pretty much an urban myth. Military ammo is sealed at both the primer pocket and case mouth, but civilian ammo seldom is.

I have ammo that I handloaded 20+ years ago, with no special "sealing" techniques, that shoots to the same specs today that they did when they were "fresh".

Properly handloaded ammo will last just as long as factory stuff.

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An armed society is a polite society. Manners are good when one may have to back up his acts with his life. - Robert A. Heinlein