Do you shoot factory ammo or handloads?

[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