Reloading for Carry?

[Boriqua]

At this point I have loaded probably 10,000 rounds or so over the last 5-6 years but I have only loaded paper punchers.

I was really hot to try Underwood 155 gr for the .40 but they are out of stock and who knows when it will be back so I decided to make something close. I found hornady XTP 155 gr bullets and loaded them over 9.2 gr of longshot and a standard small primer.

LOVED the round. Loved the accuracy, the recoil impulse and everything about it.

So I have 96 pcs of brand new starline brass and want to load these up for carry. I have never loaded anything I thought I might potentially use in SD so

Is there anything any of you do differently in the production of Carry ammo? Do you seal the primers?

My dies are set up and I tested the round over 30 rounds using reloaded brass and 4 rounds of the starline. Works fine in both my 40's

 

[Ben7]

I’m sure someone will say that you should only shoot factory ammo for carry duty. If you have to use your weapon, they’ll say you loaded extra bad news man-killer rounds, and you were a psychopath hell bent on killing people. Why else would you have to reload your own special man-killer ammo?

 

[azrik]

Alex
I wouldn't do anything different other than chamber check / plunk check each round before loading up the mags.
If you fall in the pool with your gun, replace the ammo but I did that anyway with factory stuff.

 

[azrik]

I’m sure someone will say that you should only shoot factory ammo for carry duty. If you have to use your weapon, they’ll say you loaded extra bad news man-killer rounds, and you were a psychopath hell bent on killing people. Why else would you have to reload your own special man-killer ammo?

"I'm sure someone will say"...
...then you just said.

Thanks for that. :clap:

 

[Ben7]

I’m sure someone will say that you should only shoot factory ammo for carry duty. If you have to use your weapon, they’ll say you loaded extra bad news man-killer rounds, and you were a psychopath hell bent on killing people. Why else would you have to reload your own special man-killer ammo?

"I'm sure someone will say"...
...then you just said.

Thanks for that. :clap:

Just getting it out of the way. Predictable as a sunrise.

 

[Boriqua]

I dont usually see that response in the AZ forums unless its new transplants but if we could .. and its a free board but .. if we could .. just keep it to the technical.

AZrik .. thanks man .. I should check each one then in both guns I plan to use it in and ...

stay away FROM POOLS!!

Actually funny story about wet ammo. So I pack a 642 in a freezer bag and stick it in my pocket when I go kayaking and the few times I went tubing. Never an issue .. until the last time and the bag while not filled with water was pretty wet inside with about 1/4 in of water sitting at the bottom. Took off the grips and sprayed a mess of clp into the innards and cleaned it up and dryed off the ammo. Figured I should just make that ammo range fodder and it shot just fine.

Damnit .. it was expensive ammo!!

 

[TheAccountant]

Keep them exactly like you tested them. If you get rained on or think they've been exposed to moisture then swap them out and shoot them at your next range day.

 

[Flash]

I have carried reloads for defense ammo for most of my life although I'm not doing it right now.

I don't reload defense ammo any differently that I do range ammo because I require 100% reliability and outstanding accuracy from both. I've never sealed primers and in looking at my factory SD ammo, the factories don't either.

 

[Boriqua]

Keep them exactly like you tested them. If you get rained on or think they've been exposed to moisture then swap them out and shoot them at your next range day.

Funny you should say that. I have new lock rings for that turret I want to install but didn't want to touch the set up until I tested the rounds and then .. after I loaded up the carry ammo so I knew it would be the exact same thing I tested.

 

[Suck My Glock]

I too have carried my own ammo most of the time. It depended on what caliber of what gun I was packing at any particular time. I too have heard the warning that if you get into a shooting with your own ammo you will get ripped apart in court by the opposition, but I always figured the best way to avoid that was to simply obfuscate and not admit it was made by me. "Oh yeah, I bought this batch from a dude at a gun show," or "the ammo came with the pistol when I bought it from a guy".

Now I'm about to hear that anything less than the absolute candid truth in a court is stupid.

 

[Harrier]

About that wet ammo... I did a review once of a Colt Mustang I got from an ex-DEA agent... he "lost it" during an "operation" then found it in one of the well compartments of his boat... that had sat outside for 10-15 years... it was rusted up solid, and still loaded with Federal Hydra-shok.
I figured they were dead... I soaked it a week in Kroil and finally gave up trying to salvage the gun. I ended up prying it apart in pieces. I got the magazine out and finally was able to get the slide to move and recovered all of the ammo.
Just for giggles I loaded them up in my Bersa and was I surprised when every one went bang! So there you have it- 15years exposed to the weather and a week soaking in kroil and it still went bang 6 out of 6 times...

 

[Bigfoot]

In today's climate where ammo is hard to come by, "I reloaded my own because I couldn't find any in the store(s)."

 

[Harrier]

What I do is test & chrono various OEM factory rounds thru my guns... then I know how that ammo really performs in my guns. Then I load something similar (bullet, velocity etc) that is more accurate if possible. You may find that A) the OEM stuff doesn't perform (velocity wise) like the OEM claims and B) typical load data is way below the OEM performance... so unless you load to XXX velocity, your handloaded fodder will probably be "less lethal".

 

[Cbvanb]

I loaded and carried my own ammo off duty for many years, as a law enforcement officer. I usually carried something that wasn't normally issued and I preferred my own loads. For what it's worth, I worked at my department range for over 6 years. We kept an old C-ration can filled with oil on top of a file cabinet, filled with our current duty rounds. Every so often we would take a round out, clean it off and fire it. In the 6 years I worked there we never had a failure to fire. I wouldn't worry a whole lot about moisture, unless the ammo is completely submerged for a significant length of time.

 

[792mauser]

About half n half for me.
9mm self defense loads indont bother with.

Revolver ammunition I usually do. Since I reload .32, 8mm, 9mm rimmed, 40, 44, 45 and 50 cals.

45acp I do load on occasion so I have a few S/D loads floating around. But normally ill buy em when I find em cheap.

 

[knockonit]

reload what you shoot, both range and protection, fudge'm i say, gotta prove you did it.
mums the word. don't ya know.
Rj

 

[azrik]

I too have carried my own ammo most of the time. It depended on what caliber of what gun I was packing at any particular time. I too have heard the warning that if you get into a shooting with your own ammo you will get ripped apart in court by the opposition, but I always figured the best way to avoid that was to simply obfuscate and not admit it was made by me. "Oh yeah, I bought this batch from a dude at a gun show," or "the ammo came with the pistol when I bought it from a guy".

Now I'm about to hear that anything less than the absolute candid truth in a court is stupid.

I can't recall...

 

[storage_man]

No matter what everybody else says, develop a load for YOUR CARRY GUN. I have carried my own loads for more years then I want to talk about. But I have have several guns which carry and have will have only FACTORY SD LOADS because I haven't found the load that that I LIKE ! Pretty simple. The Gun needs to like it, I also need to like it.

I have found a .380 load that works great for me and gives me the results that I desire.

I only carry factory loads in any 9mm, because I've not really found loads for carry. I load thousands of rounds of 9mm a year, but have never found one that I really like. Now .40 totally different story. For 30years using a .40 cal carry, I have I load that my gun likes & I like. Its loaded all of the time.

It really is a simple solution. Has nothing to do with anything other than what your GUN LIKES and WHAT YOU LIKE.

 

[High Standard]

I have no problem loading my own for SD. I have done it in the past. I currently am not because I was able to find some commercial SD ammo so I don’t have a need at this moment. But I have all of the components to load up 200 rounds of 9mm and 200 of 357/38. I have Hornady XTP’s and Sierra bullets and I use Titegroup, Unique and H110.

The only suggestion I can offer is to make sure you thoroughly test your rounds as I recently purchased some primers that I have had 2 or 3 not ignite in the first 500 rounds I loaded. So I will make sure not to use them if I load some SD rounds.

 

[Boriqua]

Well tomorrow morning I am going to load up the 96 pieces of new brass I have. I think I will trickle and funnel them all so I know they are all exactly 9.2gr. Sure it may take a little longer but even though my powder drop is very consistent I can still get a 9.1 or a 9.3 on occasion and I don't know how big a difference that would make when I am near or at the top of the hogdon recommend.

When I load range ammo I am well below max so I don't worry to much if I am a grain up or down.

I might be overthinking this!!