law about reloading handgun ammo

[poor man]

i was going to reload some ammo for my moms 380 i wanted to break down some of the round nose ammo she has and put it back together with a hollow point BUT she said the instructor (when she got her carry permit) said it was against the law to reload for a carry gun! anybody know about this???

the reason i was going to do the swap is because before dad passed away he had bought like 6 boxes of 50 shells to have extras around, and i told him he should have hollow points instead of round nose (for safety to keep bullets from going stray)

thanks for the advise.....

 

[fallout mike]

I don't believe he is right.

 

[TAKtical]

Ive heard that it is not recommended but I dont know about illegal. I dont know what the laws are there but that doesnt sound right. Im sure someone will chime in with a way for you to get a more definite answer.

 

[blarby]

Another creative way to recycle this question.

Que : everything thats about to come.


Is it illegal : No.

Is it advised : Personal opinion.

Reason : Oh, you're gonna get a whole heap of it.... Brace yourself.

You could also go here :

http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?t=172213&highlight=handloads+self+dense

But fear not, it will all be regurgitated shortly........

The "cliff notes" explanation : In the world where absolutely anything and everything is possible, it inserts a potential hiccup into your defensive legal position.

The ballistic properties of your ammunition ( the bullet type, powder charge, choice of bullet) could possibly be called into question in your defense. Factory loaded ammunition has certified data regarding all of the properties of the cartridge- your handloads do not. Certain high-profile specialty defense witnesses will not attend to your defense solely based on the fact that you have used handloads in this event.

 

[Skribs]

I've never heard of any law against it. The "mall ninja lawyer" advice is that anything you do beyond jus buy a standard gun and buy ammo can be used in court to paint you as a violent sociopath looking for an excuse to kill someone rather than a normal person who is preparing for self defense.

Personally, I look at it as I am preparing to defend myself with what will most likely result in me walking away from the encounter.

I do find it interesting you want to break down FMJ and reload it with JHP. Wouldn't it be more cost effective to handload fresh JHP cartridges and use the FMJ for practice?

 

[Sergei Mosin]

I am not a lawyer and I do not live in Tennessee, so I am not familiar with the laws there. However, I do know that some instructors will advise against carrying reloads rather than factory ammunition. Generally there are two reasons for this - one is to keep some new gun owner from blowing up their gun and their hand with Bob's Super Reloads that they bought at a gun show, and the other is the fear (real or imagined, you decide) that in the event of a defensive shooting, the use of reloads might be portrayed by a persecutor (sic) as an attempt to increase the lethality of the weapon.

I'm not yet a reloader, but if I wanted JHPs for a .380, I don't think I'd bother rolling my own - I'd go with Federal Hydra-Shoks. JHP penetration in a .380 tends to be pretty marginal, to the point that there is a school of thought that holds one should use FMJ for defense in a .380, but the Hydra-Shoks are probably the best JHP available in that caliber. In the Brass Fetcher tests, they are the only .380 JHP that meets the FBI 12-inch minimum penetration requirement.

 

[zxcvbob]

It's not illegal. It might be ill-advised.

If you shoot some *and* if the DA decides to prosecute *and* you need gunshot residue testing to clear you, you *might* be in trouble, depending on the judge's opinion about the admissibility of the evidence.

That's a lot of things to go wrong before it makes any difference, but you're not in control of most of those things.

I use handloads for home defense. I also carry them at church, where if I need to shoot someone I'm surrounded by friendly witnesses. I seldom carry them on the street -- OTOH, I don't carry a gun on the street all that often.

 

[Ehtereon11B]

Is it illegal? Absolutely not. In fact I would get the name of her CCW instructor and string him up whatever tree possible for spouting falsities like that. Ignorance of the law is a pet peeve of mine. Making up laws tops my list.

Is it frowned upon? Kinda. Some overzealous DA might try prosecuting you for it depending on how he feels about firearms.

My professional opinion is if you still want to handload for her do this. Buy her a few boxes of good SD ammo that you both like. Reload rounds similar for cheap practice. Like if she uses 90 grain Critical defense in her carry, load her some 90 FTX for her practice rounds.

 

[sleepercaprice1]

I think there is a state or 2 that has laws against hollow points, but I'm sure TN isn't one of them. There is also at least one firearms instructor and gun writer who strongly recommends not using anything but factory ammo for self defense.

While I can understand the thinking, I believe that most defensive shootings are either justified or not and the choice of ammo is going to be secondary in a shooter's defense or prosecution.

There is plenty of good self defense ammo available on the market. I would recommend using what the local police dept. uses. It would be hard to fault that choice in a courtroom.

 

[Sam1911]

the instructor (when she got her carry permit) said it was against the law to reload for a carry gun! anybody know about this???

Two possibilities:

1) She misunderstood an opinion he gave as a factual statement about the law.
2) He was full of crap.

Both are equally likely.

As others have pointed out, we have threads that delve deeply into the real issues that could, possibly, be involved if you do carry handloaded ammo for defense. We don't need to rehash those here.

But the legal question is answered.