How many here trust their life to your own reloads

[Ron Padilla]

YOU, you wouldn't want to be behind me after a bowl of pinto beans, if I could can it and sell it like other have tried I would be rich and could care less if I got sued. :)

[chances R]

I don't reload yet but plan to start in the near future and plan on trying to duplicate and improve the factory loads for carry. I would have no problem using my personal hand loads.
I would rather have a jacketed hollow point but if lead is all we have available, that's fine. Just a lead round nose mushrooms enough to be effective. And then there are the lead hollow points.

So what exactly are you looking to improve? You know there are highly skilled ballistitians with considerale resources that do that for a living.

[Dolomite_supafly]

Treat it like a new carry gun, if you can get through 500 of your OWN rounds then they are probably reliable enough to carry.

[gregintenn]

I seem to recall a bit of David's story. Would someone please refresh me on the ending? Was he prosecuted? If so, was it solely because he used handloaded ammo?

 

The short answer is if you shoot someone, you are in for a world of headache and legal fees, regardless of whether you were completely legal or not.

[Ron Padilla]

No he wast the suite was filed but determined to be a fraudulent claim, he indicated that it took place well over 2 decade's ago

[Trekbike]

The legal aspect of this question is a dead horse that has been sufficiently flogged for a LOOOOOOOOOONG time on the internet. I've yet to see proof of this being an issue a single in a self defense court case.

I don't remember much of the details but I'll pass along what I can. I used to subscribe to Combat Handgun magazine. Each month Massad Ayoob had an article where he reviewed legal cases and shared information to help people to not make the same mistakes in the case.

There was a case were a husband had reloaded some lighter target loads to lessen the recoil during practice. At some point later his wife tried to commit suicide using that gun that still had the reloads in the gun. I seem to recall that the husband happened upon her suicide attempt, tried to stop her but the gun goes off killing her. During the investigation and autopsy, because the ammo were reloads, they couldn't use existing factory ammo ballistics records to help determine exactly what happened in order to prove the husband's innocence. I'm sorry that I can't remember why but there was something related to the light reload. They said the remaining rounds in the gun couldn't be tested because there was no proof the round that killed her was like the remaining rounds in the gun since it wasn't factory ammo. I don't remember for sure but I believe he was convicted of killing her. I believe there was enough evidence for Massad to believe the husband was innocent.

[nightrunner]

So what exactly are you looking to improve? You know there are highly skilled ballistitians with considerale resources that do that for a living.

It's a pretty well known fact that aside from places like Buffalo Bore and Black Hills, most ammo manufacturers don't load to max pressures. Some guns can handle it, some can't.

[musicman]

Just to add another voice, yea I'll trust my life with my reloads if necessary. It's all a crap-shoot anyway (pun intended)

If I've made the decision to pull the trigger to defend myself or loved ones, I'll use whatever I have avaliable. I happen to generally have a 40 with Federal HSTs or a 9 with Federal FTXs on hand and prefer that to my fmj/plated range ammo, but even that would hopefully beat screaming for help and soiling myself to show an agressor how determined I am to stay alive.

Heck, in an agressor situation I'd use anything around to save my life, whether I knew the source or not.

That all being said, I prefer factory ammo with the small thought of legal repercussions in the back of my mind. Also, I rarely buy fancy bullets for reloading and prefer to take advantage of the whiz-bang technology in modern HP ammo for carry. I figure my fine motor skills will already be crap at that point so I want as much in my favor as possible.

[chances R]

Would I use my reloads.....Yes, if that was the only choice I had.  Choice being key here.  If factory loads are the 'standard' issue by most LE agencies, then that is good enough for me.  Plus add that an expert like Massad and others, based on their courtroom experience also support factory ammo, well again that's good enough for me.

 

Actually when I asked 'what improvements' were wanting to be made in the reloaded ammo for self-defense I was doing a little fishing.  If indeed it was bigger, badder, faster, more deadly, etc. etc. then I think a post/goal to that point could be used against one in legal proceedings.  Just my opinion.  It is not always the concern of a civil suit, but whether that line of thinking could be used by a prosecutor pressing charges or not. For my money and my opinion, I would trust factory defense ammo for dependability, performance, and legal purposes, be they real or imaginary.

[TN Volunteer]

I have no problem with reloads.

 

Was once told by someone else a long time ago, if you need to shoot a perp', make sure you are using factory rounds to avoid litigation.

 

Didn`t help much, at a relatives self defense trial awhile back. The individual of the topic got litigated to the poor house.

 

Things are going to the dogs.

 

ETA, I would rather be tried by 12 than carried by 6.

Edited May 25, 2015 by TN Volunteer

[SonnyCrockett]

the research and development by bullet mfgs on hollowpoint human stoppers

can not be reproduced at home,so why bother?

 

I want a bullet that has been tested and proven deadly....

 

but for plinking my reloads work fine