I have been wondering about hand loading self-defense ammo. The common wisdom is to make sure your S.D. ammo is reliable in your carry gun and to practice with it. Well with the price of factory S.D. ammo this can get pretty expensive so it would seem hand loading makes sense. I have read threads regarding the legal side of not loading your on ammo for S.D. and that’s a debate for another thread.
For this thread I want do know how you would go about loading and testing your own S.D. ammo.
Some questions that I have are:[/QUOTE]
1. Would you try to copy a factory load as closely as possible?The key issue is to ensure the velocity achieved by the hollow point bullet is within the comparatively narrow range of velocity that will allow it fully expand and achieve adequate penetration. If the velocity is too high, it will over expand or expand too soon and under penetrate. If the velocity is too low, the bullet may under expand or not expand at all and over penetrate.
Consequently you need to know the velocity envelope for the bullet.
You also need to know the actual velocity of your load in your handgun. But that's true with any self defense load, and the ability to tailor the velocity is one of the advantages of hand loading your own.
2. Would you use new brass vs previously fired?There is no significant technical difference between new brass and once fired brass. Consequently I use either new brass or clean and inspected known by me to be once fired brass. Practically speaking this means I load into new brass, then when I expend that carry ammo down range after carrying it for 2-3 months, I recycle that brass once by reloading it as self defense ammo, then drop it in the regular reload pile after it is once again expended.
3. Would you hand weigh each charge to ensure consistency? I do, but depending on the powder and measure used it's usually over kill. In practice, it means verifying the exact charge weight in each round. But it's worth my time as I only load 100 rounds of SD ammo at a time compared to 500-1000 rounds at a time on my Dillon, and it provides extra piece of mind with minimal extra time invested.
4. How many rounds would you test before feeling comfortable carrying it?The answer is the same regardless of whether you use factory ammo or hand loaded ammo.
For a semi-auto I regard 200 rounds as the minimum, and that assumes 100% reliability with the pistol, magazines and ammo combined. The main things I am looking for are:
a) consistent velocity (an SD about 15-18 fps or less).
b) velocity in the required range
c) no evidence of set back after repeated chambering
d) 100% reliability in the pistol and in each magazine to be carried.
For a revolver I'd consider as few as 50 rounds. They main things I look for in a revolver are:
a) consistent velocity (an SD about 15-18 fps or less).
b) velocity in the required range
c) no evidence of bullets backing out under recoil (which can prevent cylinder rotation)
d) 100% reliability in ignition and in ejection from the cylinder with no "stickiness".
e) an absence of unburnt powder grains, which can lodge under the ejector and prevent the cylinder from closing on a re-load.
5. Would you pick a specific powder?
Not a specific powder, but I insist that the powder used meet certain requirements:
a) achieve the required velocity and SD with the load in the specific barrel length and within the maximum pressure limits.
b) not display unburned powder grains in a revolver.
c) accurate measuring and no potential for powder bridging - which could cause a squib load.
6. Any other thoughts or ideas?You want 100% ignition reliability and that means taking care to ensure there is no contact with the primers and any oil, including skin oil.
You will want to carefully visually inspect each round, and you'll want to use a chamber gauge and ensure the round both drops in the gauge and drops out freely with no pressure needed in either direction.
Or is this just a really bad idea and not worthy of discussion?Massad Ayoob provide an example of the forensic issues that can occur, and people often quote that as an example of why you don't want to hand load self defense ammo - but it's a mis-application of what he said.
In Ayoob's example, a woman shot her self with her husband's gun and hand loads. Unfortunately he was a hand loader and had several types of ammo available for that handgun. The wife shot herself with a very light target load, but the forensic analysis was done on a much heavier load, with the result that they felt the lack of powder stippling on the body suggested a greater shooting distance that precluded her from shooting herself, and thus the husband became a suspect, was charged and had to hire his own ballistics experts (including Ayoob) to eventually clear himself.
This gets used as an example, of why you should not hand load your own self defense ammo, as there is no known data base of factory loads with which to compare the forensic evidence with your story.
That is however flawed as the forensic task in a self defense shoot is not a case of trying to match a gunshot wound to an unknown assailant based on ammo and firearm found on the assailant later. Rather it is a case of just having to match your ammo with the forensic evidence at the scene to ensure your story matches the forensics.
In this case, what you need is to ensure your self defense ammo is stored separately from any other ammo (hand loaded or factory) and is clearly marked as your self defense load. In effect, the police can then use this clearly marked ammo to test against the forensics from the scene to verify that your story hold water.
As such Ayoob's example isn't advice not to use hand loaded self defense ammo,it's just a caution that as ammo with out an existing data base, additional testing may be needed, and that you need to ensure your self defense loads are segregated and clearly marked - and that's sound advice even with factory self defense ammo. For example, even if you use factory .357 Magnum ammo, if you store it with your other .357 factory ammo or hand loads, the potential exits for the police to confuse head stamps and impound the wrong ammo for testing, which may lead to inconsistencies in the forensic investigation.
. But I wouldn't hesitate to throw the powder if I were gonna shoot a thousand of them. (This also meaning loading them on a progressive.)
just had this nagging question rattling round in the nogg'n. 
