I received a nice little 20 dollar reloading kit (time consuming, but I like to do it), and I have no idea why, but it made me hesitant to load self defense ammo with it. Is there any reason not to trust it? Thanks!
As long as what you reload is reliable, go for it. It has NEVER been an issue with a self defense case whether the ammo used was factory or hand loaded.
No reason not to trust it to load good ammo. Not a good idea to use reloads for defense ammo. Sometimes juries have a field day with that. Best to use factory ammo designed for the purpose. Just for legal reasons. If all ya got is reloads that is better than nothing though.
I agree that legally it is probably better just to shoot off-the-shelf ammo in self-defense. And it should not be anything spectacular with a scary name, like Uncle Buck's Special Flesh-Shredder Talon Points. Just regular factory loads -- and using the standard cop loads in your area might be a good hedge ... though around here they all use semi-autos, and I refuse to trust anything except a revolver. There is no LOGICAL reason not to trust your reloads, though -- just a practical liability reason. Those Lee Loader kits can load some fine cartridges, despite their low cost.
LOL...the Lee Classic Loader. All of my first 4 or 5 hundred rounds of .44 Mag as a kid was with this workhorse! Good memories of early days! As far as using the hand loaded ammo, there is no real liability issue per se, but you have to remember that if you use your handgun against another person, it is not unusual that the LE and courts use the basic data provided by the ammunition company to determine the distance from the target to the gun. If you use reloads, they will NOT use evidence that YOU manufactured in court. This takes a potentially critical piece of evidence off the table. IF there is no witnesses, and the bad guy claims he was 25 feet away, and you say he was 15, then you have a conflict of testimony that can easily send you to prison for a couple of decades. Evidence to support YOUR claim would take this off the table. Use factory loads for self defense. Practice with a reload that mimics the bullet weight and speed of your SD loads. As to reliability, I have reloaded an inestimable number of rounds in the past 30 years and have never had a single failure due to the round. I still won't use them for SD.
I have a couple of those hammer dies and I kind of treat them as end of the world, held up in a cave must have one more shot type of thing. I have successfully reloaded 44 mag and 38 spl with a lee loader mostly to see if I could and they worked fine and I would trust them as much as any factory load. Now that is in a revolver I don't think I'd be of the same opinion were it for a semi auto because the case sizing is a little more important for a semi auto than a revolver. I had a large pistol primer ignite when trying to seat it but it was in an empty case so no harm done just a little ring in the ears for a couple of minutes. I would be aware of the number of times you reload the same brass with out trimming and clean and inspect your brass thoroughly.
