Do you shoot factory ammo or handloads?

[Adam Helmer]

Posters here obviously like to shoot their handguns. Who shoots centerfire factory ammo and who prefers their centerfire handloads? As for handloads, who prefers factory jacketed bullets to using their cast bullets?

I bought a box of factory .38 Special loads once when I was a town cop (Department Regulations). Since that day in 1970, I have only shot my handgun handloads using my cast bullets and they make up about 95% of my pistol shooting. I do load some jacketed bullets for the .357 and .44 magnum now and then.

I prefer my cast handgun bullets for most of my shooting with the .38s, .357s, .44s and .45 handguns.

Who shoots ONLY factory handgun ammo? Who prefers to "roll their own?"

Adam

[skeet]

YES...to both. Mostly handloads though..but 9MM stuff is so cheap to buy I generaly use factory in it

[Catfish]

I load my own for everything except a 7.62 x 36 rifle that was built with a mil pull-off barrel and it shoots the cheap Russian soft points as good as anything I`ve loaded and I can buy them cheaper than I can load them. I load for 3 different .17 cal. rounds and 7 different .22 cal. rounds, just for starters. Needless to say I play with several different wildcat and you must load your own with them. I load handgun ammo for .38 sp to .500 S&W and shotgun ammo for 12, 20 and .410 gages.
Sounds like you must be about as old as I am. I started reloading in 1965 when I bought my first center fire rifle. I convinced that it cost me alot more to reload because I would not shoot near as much if I didn`t roll my own.

[muledeer]

Handloads and either SJSP or SJHP. I load for 9, 357,40, 44, & 45
Although I did recently buy 500 rds surplus 45's because I bought an Auto Ordnance "Tommy Gun" (1927A-1) with a 50 rd drum and wanted some "blasting ammo".
muledeer

[Dan Morris]

General use, hand loads. CCW, factory non exotic.....lawyer would have a field day with a handload
Dan

[buckhunter]

I have rifles, shotguns and HG's that have never fired a factory load. However, I don't load for the 9mm nor do I load shotgun slugs otherwise its home grown stuff.

[skeet]

Muledeer, a long time ago in a galaxy far away I had a guy try to sell me 2 Thompsons. I did shoot them(just had to)...but declined the fellow's offer of 100 bucks each..2 1/2 hours later I was visited by an agent of the FBI looking for ...a guy with a couple of stolen Thompsons...surprise surprise. Those things can really go through some ammo. I wiped my prints off when I gave them back:D :D Then I told 'em he went thataway!!:rolleyes: Had a chance to wind up with a Military M-16 once too. Sitting against the wall at the NG armory near where I lived. I think the guy that forgot it really got reamed. Top sargeant visited after he got the message I had it. Even he was relieved. I also shoot a fair amount of the mil spec 45's in my Colts. 9 bucks a box is pretty cheap...and the brass is a plus. BTW the Wolf 45's are really cheap at 7.50 a box....but the cases are steel and Berdan

[Jack]

99.99% of what I shoot is handloads- rifle or pistol.
I do have a few factory loads, in cases where I wanted just a few of a certain load, and it's not worth buying 100 bullets and working up a load. An example of that is Winchester Silvertips for my 44 Special revolver- I wanted 5 of em to carry. Used the rest for practice. Cheaper to buy 20 factories than to buy a box of bullets and work up a load.
I do shoot cast handgun bullets, but more and more, out of laziness, I buy the bullets. If you watch for deals, you can buy bulk quantities of 38 and 45 wadcutters at prices low enough to make it more practical to buy 1,000 than to cast 1,000.
Bullets that are meant for a bit higher velocity than wadcutters, I generally cast my own.
Rifle ammo, I load all of it.

[BILLY D.]

I could write a tome about this subject, but I'll keep it short. I buy veeery little factory ammo. The last box I bought was in '97 for carry ammo. Speer Lawman, 45acp.

Most of my hunting is done with a handgun. My favorites, 357 Rem Max, 44 Mag., both Contenders and two Ruger B/H'S in 45 LC. I like to tailor my handloads because I don't want the ballistics to change with every box of ammo. I also like to try the bullets for performance.

I do not cast my own bullets but I have a lot of friends at Laser Cast, Lead Head and used to have some at BullX. I prefer lead bullets in all my rounds except the 44 and the 357. There I prefer jacketed bullets.

For all my soirees pistol shooting and practice I use cast bullets in 9mm, 38SP & 357 Mag, 38 Super, 41 Mag, and 45 acp and Long Colt.

I'm old and have a lot of alone time so I reload to relax and have fun. I shoot at least 3 times a week unless the weather is totally uncooperative. I don't spend as much time outdoors anymore when it dips below -20 degrees.

So to answer the question, I roll my own.

Best wishes, Bill

[gd357]

A little of both, but more handloads than factory stuff. the prices for ammo made reloading nearly a necessity for rifles, and when I picked up a .357 max, it became a must.

gd

[Riposte1]

For my first 10 years it was almost all .22s (and maybe half a box of 16ga shotgun shells) so it was Factory. Then for 25 years I probably shot 1,000 handloads for every factory load. Then for the last 15, when spare time is at a premium it has been the other way around but I am beginning to get back into handloading a bit since last summer.

I just realized, I have been an avid shooter for 52 years. Gee Adam thanks for reminding me how old I am :-)))

Onward
Riposte

[TreeDoc]

Almost exclusively hand-loads in my Pistolas. I have 2 Dillon 550's to churn them out by the thousands! I top them with West Coast's copper plated, double struck, lead bullets. I do however sport Federal Hydra Shok factory loads in all my CCW and defensive handguns. Not because of the lawyers, which by the way I don't believe that thought process or argument has EVER been tested, but because of the inherent reliability and proven performance.

[Mr. 16 gauge]

I handload for everything that I shoot with the exception of the .25 ACP, and I don't really shoot that gun very often. I do shoot factory ammo initially with a new gun in a new caliber until I get a good quantity of cases (current 'new' gun is a 1920's commercial Luger P-08 in .30 Luger), but then it is pretty much handloads for me. Lately, with the price of bullets going through the roof, I have been shooting a fair amount of self cast bullets through most of my handguns for target practice and paper punching chores in order to save a few bucks.
I also carry factory loads in my CCW guns, but for the same reasons treedoc has stated, not because of the myth of 'the lawyers will get yah'.

[Adam Helmer]

TreeDoc & Mr. 16 gauge,

I have not read any case law that "lawyers will get ya" if you use handloads. I have seen a few articles in various gun magazines along that theme.

I sat in on a discussion on that subject at the local club recently between two attorneys. One fellow stated the "NO handload" scenario could be stretched to cover the homeowner repelling a home invasion and using an aluminum baseball bat instead of one made of ash wood, or the homeowner using a muzzleloader and 90 grains of 2F behind a patched ball instead of 70 grains, yadda, yadda."

Both fellows were of the opinion that the justifiable use of deadly force is the determining factor and not the means used. FWIW.

Adam

[Riposte1]

Adam;

With the caveat that I am not a lawyer (who would admit that if he was ;) ) and don’t play one on TV, I have asked a lot of them and a few judges.

I got the same answer you did...if it is a justifiable shoot, it is a justifiable shoot. If it is not the prosecutor will use any means available to hang you.

Riposte

PS - we had a guy nearby who did a weekly call in legal show and he told this story: "I was driving my mom to town when we passed by a cemetery and she happened to read one of the tombstones next to the road which read 'here lies a lawyer and a good man'. She turned to me with a quizzical look and asked 'why did they bury two men in one grave?' " :)

[tooldummy]

I reload all my rifle and pistol ammo. I bought a box of .38 special to use in my .357 and my .38 for defense at home.

I've been giving the "No reload for defense" idea a lot of thought lately. If a person were to use say for instance Winchester brass, Winchester primers, and Winchester lead and perhaps Unique powder and load them to shoot maybe 200 fps slower than Winchesters published load data, I can't help but wonder how much trouble you could be in. I'm in agreement with the other guys that says if you use justifiable leathal force you theoretically should be able to use any means available that you can get your hands on.

[Riposte1]

Long ago and far away I did just that. I was working as a sworn LEO in a large city that required us to carry revolvers with ".38 spl. ammunition of 125 or 158 grs". It was stipulated that the revolver could be a .357 but that the ammo had to be .38. This was as a sort of sworn auxillary, the regular force was issued Remington .38+P 125gr. It seldom worked well.

I asked the city atty. if handloads were allowed (I mentioned this was a long time ago). He said that they were not prohibited.

I loaded 158gr Winchester JHPs to 1300 fps in .38 cases (I also tried 125gr JHPs to 1450 but they did not penetrate enough to suit me - though in retrospect they would have probably been OK). The 158s were obvioulsy designed for .38s not .357s and they too were a bit on the "explosive" side but at least they would go about 7.5" in newsprint. They left 3.5" diameter holes in the newsprint but I doubt that means much.

The gun was a nice 4" M-19 that the Police Dept. armorer had round butted and "birds headed", checkering the backstrap and putting on a set of fitted rosewood stocks with a Tyler T-grip. I wish I still had that gun!!!!

I used Blue dot for powder but it was an entirely different powder in those days, it even looked different. Not all that much flash (now it is horrendous!).

Riposte

[Adam Helmer]

Riposte1,

Thanks for the "PS Lawyer joke." You gave me a laugh on a day when I needed a good laugh.

P.S. We had a case about 20 years ago in my old hometown where two guys went into partnership and their company did very well after a very slow start. One partner put in 15-hour days and the other partner dated all the new hire chicks and spent 24+ hours with each in the local motel. That same partner saw the company go from 4 employees to over 200 and he was a real goof off as well as the company stud.

The 15-hour partner murdered the goof off and inheirited the whole company per their original partnership agreement. The cops grilled the 15-hour dude, dug up his yard and basement looking for the goof off's corpse and did not find it. The cops had to let 15-hour guy go free because of lack of evidence.

No, the story does not end here. The 15-hour guy had a bad case of guilty conscience and told his priest what he did. That admission was "privilaged", but the priest told the guy to confess to the cops, which he did. The cops asked where the body of "goof off" was located. The 15-hour guy said, "That was the problem after I "smoked" that worthless fellow. I drove around with his body in the car trunk until I passed a cemetary where I noticed a fresh grave. I put goof off there and you folks never knew where he was." The cops got the location of the "double grave" and then successfully prosecuted the hard working guy.

So much for you causing my reflective thinking. Be well.

Adam

[Riposte1]

That's the trouble with cemeteries...people are dieing to get in :)

Ooh...back to my cave.

Riposte

[Riposte1]

On a more serious note. My experience with the hot .38s and later when I got a DA revolver in .45 ACP showed me that, even though I was an experienced reloader, you have to really be careful when assembling revolver ammo...I had a lot of malfunctions early on. Mostly misfires (no I dont cut or adjust revover springs - though I will replace the rebound spring with a Wolf).

It came to the point that I would not carry handloads in revolvers that I did not seat the primers with a hand priming tool or, later when they came out, and RCBS priming station. Lately the Dillon Square Deal and 650 seem to have enough priming power to do the job but I have not done as much handloading since those have been out.

Riposte

[Mr. 16 gauge]

With re: to the 'lawsuit' issue.....While I don't think that reloads would have any bearing whatsoever in a criminal case, they could very well sway a jury in a civil case. As most of you well know, you may be acquitted by a jury on criminal charges, only to end up paying in a civil suit. While there may have been no cases on record of this happening so far, I certainly don't want to be the first 'test case'.

[BILLY D.]

Handloads VS factory. I think as long as you kept your mouth shut it would not be a problem.

Even "Bullet Girl" on Csi Miami doesn't tear ammo down to see if it's a handload or factory produced.

Now with my luck the next episode she will suddenly receive a new directive from Department Headshed to start doing that.

Best wishes, Bill

[8X56MS]

Most of my semi auto shooting is done with factory ammo. Usually ball or JHPs.
I handload for all my revolvers though.

[gumpokc]

I do both but it depends on the firearm and whether i have dies or not.

I keep the steyr M40 (.40S&W in it's case in safe) and my romanian model 74 (.32acp instead headboard of bed) as ready guns at home. mags loaded but not in pistol (no kids around) and in those are factory ammo.

If i ever had to use them i figure that whether or not the lawyer/handload issue is true or not, it's one less thing to worry about (especially if a civil case comes up as mentioned above), and the factory ammo is fine for that usage.

[Rapier]

It has been so long since I bought a box of factory cartridges for a handgun, I can not recall buying one, but I know I did back in the 70s, I think. Nope, it must have been in the 60s and as I reall it was a box of Super Vel 125s for my 357.

I started shooting cast only in silhouette competition in 1984. Never shot jacketed bullets in a handgun again. All my centerfire handuns (single shots, revolvers and autos) live on a diet of hard cast GCs only.
Ed