Has the deer’s family ever called the cops about it?
With rising anmo cost, is there also a rising case for using reloads as SD ammo?
- Thread starter Doug.38PR
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Has the deer’s family ever called the cops about it?
Seems like that one would have an easy answer....
I wanted the best, most reliable ammo I could carry and BB has that reputation.
We are able to purchase all the components that factories use i.e. Speer for example, therefore we can duplicate their load. That being said, I see no possibility of distinguishing whether it's a hand-load or factory load. JMO
Thankfully, similar opinions in fields of real criminal behavior are what keep crime labs and firearms examiners in business. Never underestimate what can be done by government resources. It's all about whether or not they want or need to do it. In a low level self defense shooting, it is likely that nobody will care. Fire a couple shots during a high profile issue of national importance and hit the wrong person, buckle up . . .
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But it does, inside the context of a trial. Nobody's on trial for boats in bottles. People are on trial for shooting fools.
Remember, for a moment, that the key words in self defense are "reasonable and prudent". What constitutes reasonableness? This is actually a question on my county CCW exam, and I can tell you, it's by far the most popular one to get wrong. Reasonableness is what a hypothetical "average person" would deem reasonable--what they would do. In practical terms, it's what the jury would have done in your shoes.
When you go to trial, you're trying to convince a group of people that your actions were reasonable. How popular those actions are is directly related to how easy it is to convince them. They have to decide that, in your position, knowing what you knew at the time, they would have done the same thing.
Reasonableness is also a "total package" affair. The jury is trying to decide if each individual decision was reasonable, but subconsciously, they're trying to decide if you are reasonable. For instance, in the Larry Hickey case (IIRC), the police lost Mr Hickey's holster in evidence. With no holster in evidence, the prosecution tried to claim that Hickey was carrying his pistol tucked in his waistband, which most would judge to not be reasonable or prudent. That assertion tainted Hickey with the air of "unreasonable". They implied that if Hickey was unreasonable in his chosen method of carry, then perhaps he was unreasonable about more pertinent aspects of his testimony.
Hence--don't do weird stuff. Don't be an outlier. Do things that are easy and simple to explain. In this instance, what's easier to explain (another subtle point I was making)--
"I carried X ammunition because it has a long track record of use in law enforcement."
or
"I made my own ammo because (see previous walls of text)..."
Depends on the manufacturer.
I don't know the specifics of GSR testing and how BB's practices might relate to that. I do have a problem with how they brand some of their selections--their .44 Mag/.44 Spl "Anti-Personnel" wadcutter loads, for instance. But mostly it's a sort of "meh". Not as easy to explain as Speer or Hornady, but understandable.
Other boutiques, like the aforementioned G2 "RIP", or Lehigh Defense, I think you'd have a tougher time.
To expand on what Muss noted above:
Yes, you can buy the case, the primers, usually the same bullets. What the public can't buy is the same powder. We buy canister grade powders. These are essential blended lots of powders to create the uniform burning rate established for that powder for sale to the public. [Kinda like blended whisky.] The ammo companies get various lots of powder, establish a burning rate by test for each lot and vary the load data accordingly for each ammo lot. They may also add flash suppressants or other chemicals that can further alter the gunshot residue characteristics from factory ammo. Since few of the ammo companies actually make their own powders anymore, they may also change powders depending upon availability and price.
In short, the (pick a powder) on the shelf at the LGS isn't the same powder used by Fedingtonchester. May or may not be the same as a boutique loader. BTW, if you go down that road, is their brass headstamped with their name?
If the crime lab does gunshot residue testing, it's gonna look at the headstamp on the cases, figure out what bullet weight was used and use factory ammo they keep on hand as the test exemplar. BTW, the major ammo companies keep samples for this purpose. Hopefully, they'll use the same lot number as in your firearm for testing purposes. If there's a difference between their comparison results and those present in the shooting, who do you think is gonna be considered the most likely responsible for the difference? My state has had a couple of cases where this became an issue.
