I Do...
Long Post, but worth it if you are considering reloading your own SD ammo but are a little jitterly about the whole thing.
As Jes mentioned, this topic has been on pretty much every forum. It concerned me greatly because I wanted to practice with what I carried if at all possible. So I make it a habit of reading these threads. Shortly after I began reloading ammo, I decided that I was going to load my own SD rounds and would worry about being prosecuted if I were still alive. But, of course, I wanted someone to say that it was permissible to do so.
The following, a response I saved with permission is the best argument I have ever seen, bar none. I rest well at night knowing my rights won't be trampled as so many on the threads predict:
“I have taught Concealed Carry in Utah for over a decade and I tell my students that, UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES should they carry reloads for home defense.”
And I think, though well-meaning, you taught them wrong.
Maybe if they live on the west coast there is some slight chance of it causing an issue, but almost no place else. First, no trial law precedent exists on the topic. The fear seems to have originated in the imagination of Masaad Ayoob, who warned people not to use reloads for liability reasons. He claimed it had come up in trials where he had testified as an expert witness. But when challenged to provide a trial transcript, a case number, or ruling citation, Ayoob was unable to. After two or three years of being pestered about it, he finally found one case ruled to be homicide disguised as an accident where it might conceivably have been the case that a light target load fooled the forensics people about how close the gun was to the victim's head when it was fired. Pretty weak connection.
An attorney friend of mine believes there are several reasons it will never become part of case law. First, there is no statutory law on the books anywhere in the country outlawing handloads for defensive shooting. So, you've broken no law by doing it. Second, you're not likely to find any elected prosecutor who wants to be seen by the voting public as persecuting people who defended themselves justifiably. Third, the prosecutors understand that self-defense is an unanticipated event, and they understand you will grab whatever is at hand to do the job. Whether you shot someone with a handload or smashed his head in with a toilet tank lid isn't the issue. The issue is whether the defensive violence was justifiable? Don't shoot anyone you aren't justified in shooting and you will likely be OK with the criminal justice system. Kill people unjustifiably, and you likely won't. An inadvertent false prosecution will happen whether you used handloads or not because it will be based on perceived justifiability and not weapon particulars.
Then there are the civil courts. That's where the victim or his family might come after you for hurting the precious predator. Most states now have castle doctrine laws that specifically make it illegal for the criminal or his family to sue you for injury incurred by the criminal during the commission of a crime. Check your state laws to see if that applies where you are?
But even if you don't have that protection, the principle also exits in law that a criminal not be allowed to profit from a crime. Every once in a while you hear of some notorious serial killer who wants to cut a deal for writing a book about his crimes. They can't understand when the courts won't let them keep the money if they do. That no-profit principle makes the cases unattractive to attorneys on contingency, which are usually the only ones the criminal can afford.
So, it isn't illegal, no case law exists showing that it has ever caused a liability issue, and the chances are that neither the prosecutor nor a contingency lawyer will want to come after you if the shooting was justified.
So what are the affirmative aspects of loading your own defensive ammo? The main issue is the reliability standpoint. I am of the opinion that with a good execution plan you can make hand loads more reliable than commercial ammo. That is for the simple reason that you can take the time to inspect every individual round at every step of the process. The ammo plant cannot. You can use tools to weigh and measure and select and sort everything you assemble. With good tools, at every step of the process you can be more precise than a factory.
We've had a couple of contributors at the Shooter's Forum who've been involved in test firing ammunition for a living. One who had fired several hundred thousand rounds for a government contract said every kind of failure you've ever seen in hand loads he has seen in commercial ammo at one time or another. Squib loads, loads that were too hot, case failures, assembly issues, missing or backward primers, missing powder, high primers, crushed primers, and anything else you can dream up. There are also commercial ammo problems that no handloader ever has. I bought a thousand bulk Winchester .223 cases a few years ago. Sorting them to find the best ones for long range match loads, I found two with no flashholes. No need to explain how they would have "fired" if the factory had loaded them instead of selling them to me. At least that's one failure you can't have in a reloaded case.
Missing flashholes notwithstanding, I would follow the recommendation to use new brass in defensive loads you will carry or for loads you are taking on an expensive hunting expedition where you can't afford to have it go wrong. You should buy a large enough lot of brass that you can fire 83 randomly selected rounds. That's the lot sample size the military uses for things that cannot be tested non-destructively. It is to minimize the probability there are faults in the rest of a batch. It is important the sample be truly random, though.
Inspect the cases with a magnifying glass for flaws and irregularities. Use case measuring tools to get good uniform brass. Weigh your bullets, powder and primers to be sure the ones you will carry are all within one standard deviation of the average weight of them all. Use a benchrest primer seating tool to insure precise touchdown of the primers in the primer pockets without crushing. Measure that the primers are all about two to five thousandths below flush with the casehead after seating. You can also add sealant if you want to. Keep the stuff in special storage if you want to. Fire and replace it periodically.
We reloaders can all get better accuracy from our loads than from factory loads. The reason's the same. We can afford to be more careful assembling each round.
CMP Certified GSM Master Instructor
NRA Certified Rifle Instructor
NRA Patron Member