Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Handguns Do you do this?

I am a firm believer of using factory ammunition for concealed carry. God forbid, If I ever have to shoot someone for a good reason and do it correctly, there is still a possibility of some lawyer or prosecutor to cause you trouble. It is the times we live in. Especially if you are a older gray haired Caucasian.

Okay you do your homework on picking loads from advertisements, comments, forums and experimentation by shooting a good amount of the ammunition in your gun with all the magazines you will use for CC. I handload all my other ammunition and I trust it 100%. Although I have had very few FTF with factory ammunition, there is still that possibility. Even with quality ammo. My guns are always kept in good working order. So a factory FTF can be cause by a bad or damaged primer or a bad powder drop. You can visually check each round, but not the powder charge. So I weigh each round with my 10-10 scale to check for any variances. Brass and bullets can vary, but all the rounds should weigh very close to each other. This is done after I have shot several out of that lot #.

Anyone else this particular on your CC ammo?

I'm not. I carry commercial or hand loads. I don't worry about it much. JMO, but if it is a legal shoot, it doesn't matter what you have in your handgun. I only reason I carry the Speer gold dot is that it is advertised for short barrel handguns and supposedly has less muzzle flash

I don't worry about whether I'm using factory or reloaded ammunition. In fact, mine is all loaded by me. Like you, I thoroughly vet it through the guns I use it in for function. I don't bother weighing each round. I periodically pull a random charged case and weigh it, but have found after 10's of thousands of rounds loaded on it, that the Dillon is very consistent.

A shoot is either righteous or it ain't, what ammo you're carrying don't change that.

I should have said that I am guarding against squib loads.

When you read the comments on products from different websites that sell factory ammunition, it surprises me on the number of squib reports. From reputable manufactures. Mostly in the years of the ammo shortages. I know a lot of comments about ammo are almost comical, but they are out there. Most are probably from dirty guns or other reasons.

Agreed

[quote=Steelhead]A shoot is either righteous or it ain't, what ammo you're carrying don't change that.[/quote

Don't know what the lawyers are like where you purportedly live (Azerbaijan), but I hope you never have to find out the fallacy of your premise in a court of law in the U.S.. Aggressive prosecutors and voracious plaintiff's civil lawyers could have a field day with your use of handloads in a defensive shooting.

As a matter of curiosity, just how many civilian shootings have you personally been involved in, so we can have some measure of the level of experience behind your statement?

None

Please enlighten me about the people that have been sent to jail, based solely on them using handloads. I double dog dare you

As can be imagined, there's more than a fair share of attorneys in my locale.

Just read it again, realized that you are a f*cking idiot.

Please cite the wording of your jurisdiction's deadly force Statute that references ammunition, etc. I'm going to guess it's not there........

A civil attorney might try to make an issue of it, but Scott's underlying statement is accurate.

George

I have only ever seen one person claim that handloads are a liability in a righteous shoot. His initials might be MA.

I don't think I have ever found anything of any use in his prose.

This has been a hotly debated topic on the 'Fire for years. The challenge has always been to identify one case where handloaded amunition became an issue in court in a righteous shoot. So far that challenge has not been met, to my knowledge.

One of the marks of an uneducated, ill bred person is their inability to express themselves in standard English, without the use of profanity. You, sir, fail miserably on both points.

To the op, no I'm not that particular with my ammo, but I don't see any downside to your approach.

For a variety of reasons I carry factory fodder with jacketed hp's in my 9mm and 45 acp and revolver loads are all cast bullet handloads.

IMHO for autoloaders whether you choose factory fodder or handloads, you should run at a bare minimum 100 rounds of the load your going to carry through your gun to be assured that the gun and ammo is 100% with that combo, but better yet is running 500 of those loads through the gun and every mag you'll be using.

I notice you didn't address my first reply to you. The mark of a f*cking idiot that can't cite a single example of which she proclaims. Please, cite an example, douchebag.

Don't let the bad words throw you off, I only use those for idiots.

Exactly. A civil attorney would also make an issue if you were using factory +P ammo, factory hollowpoints, factory FMJ cop killers, your NRA membership etc etc.

I use handloads , but I make sure my notes in my handloading log describe the load as "kinder, gentler, don't really mean to hurt you too bad load".

Wait, what were we talking about?

In the days before the internet I'll admit to reading some of Ayoob's stuff. I think this subject and the hundreds of discussions that result, are probably a result of his writing..........or at least he's largely to blame.

I carry commercial ammo because the guns I carry have great readily accessible factory ammo. It's just easier. Some loads also have fancier powders than I want to experiment trying to replicate (thinking low muzzle flash and "short barrel" loads here).

If any of us were truly worried about how we'd look in a criminal or civil trial, we would post a fraction of what we do on this forum. So worrying about load origin rather than all of the other good shoot/bad shoot factors is waste of bandwidth IMO.

That's so caring.

Ayoob started all that BS by claiming the DA or Prosecutor would claim that you REALLY wanted to kill somebody, and were just looking for an excuse to do so because you were using "evil" handloads! He had some decent advice on some things, but came across as a "mall ninja" on a lot of his claims.

Personally, I load for all my handguns except for .380, 9mm, or .357 Sig. On those three, I either shoot Speer Gold Dot or Buffalo Bore Ammo.

In my handloads in my .38, .44, 45 acp, and 45 Colt carry guns, I prefer a flat nose hard cast LBT type bullet with a big ole wide meplat and good penatration at medium velocity, over factory loads. I'm a million times more likely to shoot a hog at the Ranch, than a two legged varmint, when I'm packing one of my every day handguns.

If you are involved in a justifiable shooting in a self defense encounter, when it's all said and done, the ammo will be the least of your concern if it should go to court, IMO. And as always, alertness, situational awareness, and avoidance are always my biggest concerns! That and a little good old fashioned common sense will keep most of us from ever being involved in a deadly force incident.