Hey folks, this is Andrew Branca, the author of the aforementioned, "The Law of Self Defense, 3rd Edition." I'll be happy to answer any questions anyone might have about the book. I'd encourage you to ask them quickly, however, as it's been my experience that "evil book writers" have a short half-life on gun forums.)
In terms of using reloads as carry ammo, I generally answer that question with a questions: Why? Modern self-defense ammo is excellent, and almost certainly at least equal to if not superior to hand loads. (Full disclosure, I'm a reloader myself for competition purposes, and have loaded many, many, many thousands of rounds of 45ACP and 9mm on my Dillon XL650.) So, performance-wise, I don't see any advantage to be gained, and if anything your own reloads may well be inferior.
Legally speaking, from a technical perspective hand loads shouldn't make any difference whatever. A bullet is a bullet is a bullet when it hits that other fellow, and either you had legal justification to shoot him or you didn't. If your defensive gun use is otherwise very solid (e.g., you knew the rules and didn't screw up) I expect it's very, very unlikely that the fact that you used your own reloads is going to do anything to change that.
That said, if your defensive gun use is NOT otherwise very solid, it's somewhere in that gray area where the prosecutor is weighing things to determine whether he thinks it's a winner (for him!) or not, then the fact that you used your own hand loads could be that incremental factor that leads to him to decide, what the heck, he'll go for it, this feels like a story he can sell to a jury.
Of course, the prosecutor IS free to BRING UP that you used your own reloads in self-defense, and try to make something out of it. Keep in mind that prosecutors are ALLOWED to shout almost ANYTHING to a jury, especially during opening and closing statements. Sure, the jury is told that open and close are not evidence on which they can arrive at a verdict--but they heard the words anyway, didn't they? A good example of how silly this can get is when Prosecutor John Guy in the Zimmerman trial kept shouting--literally, SHOUTING!!1!!11--about the fact that Zimmerman was carrying his pistol WITH A ROUND IN THE CHAMBER, READY TO FIRE!!!11!!!1!!
Well, duh. (I've got the actual video clip of Guy's "chamber" rant around here somewhere, if I find it I'll post it, if I can figure out how to post videos on this forum. Hmm, maybe this will work, hold one .... )
Code:
<iframe width="420" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/bLiM4w6itkI"frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
(If that didn't work you can click over to the video on my Youtube, here:
https://youtu.be/bLiM4w6itkI)
(If that didn't work, sorry, that's the limit of my IT abilities. There's a reason I went to law school.)
Of course, it's hard to know ahead of a DGU if we're going to end up with a robust self-defense narrative or a shaky narrative, so personally I choose the err on the side of greater caution and try to put all the chips in my favor that I can--and that means factory ammo for me.
Of course, factory ammo is not cheap, and if my budget were REALLY tight (factory ammo vs. food for the kids) I'd go ahead and carry my own hand loads without much worry. I'd rather have the hand loads and be prepared to deal with any legal fallout than have a sharply worded retort.
Hope that's helpful.)
In closing, given the multiple reference to Massad Ayoob above, I feel obliged to mention that I myself am an Ayoob student, having taken his (then called) Lethal Force Institute I class way back in 1996. As a then very, very young attorney it was LFI-I that led me to re-direct my legal practice to specialize solely in use-of-force law, starting with the publication of the first edition of my book in 1998. When Mas still lived in New Hampshire he and I frequented the same range, the Pioneer Sportsmens Club, and shot many matches there. I consider him both a mentor and colleague. I was humbled, indeed, when Mas agreed to write the foreword to the latest edition of my book.
All of that is just preface for me to urge that if you have the opportunity to attend one of Mas' classes you are doing yourself a terrible disservice if you don't take advantage of that opportunity. All the rest of us in the use-of-force training community stand on the shoulders of men like Mas, and nobody teaches forever. If you wait too long, you might find you've missed your chance. Indeed, I would go so far as to suggest that if you find yourself needing to choose between one of my own classes and Mas', you ought to seriously consider first attending Mas'.
--Andrew, @LawSelfDefense
