Handloads are great for hunting. The best shot I ever made in the game fields, was on an impala at 117 paces–double action–with a Smith & Wesson Model 629 .44 Magnum, loaded with a 320-grain SSK hardcast flatpoint bullet my buddy Bill Grimmett had carefully seated over a maximum safe charge of W296.

Reloads are great for training, too. How many people can afford ample, serious shooting without them? Bless you, Mike Dillon, for opening the world of “mass-produced home loads” to the individual handgunner.

Handloads are great for match shooting, if they’re carefully put together. The majority of national bull’s-eye championships (military sponsored) and police pistol championships (law enforcement agency sponsored) have been won with factory amino purchased by the governmental entity that fielded the shooter. However, most IPSC and Bianchi Cup matches have been won with reloads homebrewed by the winning shooters themselves. That says something about individuality.

However, as an expert witness for the courts in shooting cases over the last quarter century, I’ve learned some good reasons not to use reloads for personal defense. Not in the carry gun, and not in the home or store defense gun. In the limited space of this column, let’s talk about just two of those reasons.

Malice Factor

Attorneys hungry to nail you, whether in criminal or in civil court, need some hook on which to hang their argument that your actions constituted malice against the person who forced you to shoot him. We saw it with anyone who went to court after firing Black Talon ammo in self-defense, during the period when that cartridge was ludicrously demonized by the press and the politicians. We’ve seen it for decades, right up to the present, with the use of hollow-point amino. Appellate lawyer Lisa Steele is right now speaking for multiple individuals who suffered either conviction or enhanced sentences because juries bought lawyers’ arguments that the use of HP ammunition was cruel, unusual, and malicious. A lawyer who knows his stuff–which the original trial lawyers in those cases of Lisa’s apparently didn’t–can defeat the hollowpoint argument easily. The simplest avenue is to show the jury that virtually all cops carry HPs. But that argument isn’t available for handloads.

In one case I was consulted on back in the ’70s, the shooter had used a CCI Speer 200-grain JHP he’d handloaded to equal CCI’s ballistics in a factory loaded .45 ACP cartridge. The state police who investigated, and the prosecutor who brought him to trial for aggravated assault, kept asking why regular bullets weren’t deadly enough for this man. On my recommendation, the defense brought Jim Cirillo in as an expert. He calmly explained the whole thing, including the fact the defendant’s .45 ACP handloads were less powerful than the factory amino issued to the investigating troopers for their .357 Magnums, and the jury acquitted the shooter. Still, it was an attack that could have been prevented if the defendant had simply loaded with CCI’s own factory cartridges, and used his identical handloads for training and practice.

Evidentiary Element

Many defensive shootings take place literally at “powder-burning distance,” with the assailant virtually on top of the armed citizen. Those who take the criminal’s side have been known to argue he was a safe distance away and the accused shot him for no good reason. Well, gunshot residue (GSR) will tell the tale and expose the liars if the distance has been close enough. However, to do that, we on the defense team have to perform testing with what is called “exemplar” ammunition. This is ammo identical to what was fired in the incident in question. We can’t use what was left in the gun, because it’s evidence, and the testing consumes the amino and literally destroys that evidence.

You shot him with a factory round? No problem. We call the factory, get 50 rounds of identical amino of the same lot, do the GSR testing, and determine virtually to the inch the actual distance involved. You shot him with a handload? What guarantee does the court have the ammo you provided is identical to what was fired in the case at bar? You can hear the opposing lawyer now: “Objection! Your Honor, the defendant literally manufactured the evidence!” In a case I was involved in some years ago in New Jersey, the defendant’s use of nonreplicable handloads put him through a multiple-trial ordeal when, if he’d used factory amino, the facts would have been demonstrated at the starting gate and brought a just closure much sooner.

Handloads for defense? You’ve just seen two documentable reasons why I would urge you to use factory ammo for that purpose.

The more you plan for crisis mode, the less scrambling you’ll have to do the next time your association is struck by controversy, scandal, crime, or accident. Below are examples of the kind of information you should prepare so you’ll have it at your fingertips when you need it most.

1. General organizational information. If a crisis shines an unexpected spotlight on your association, you need to provide the media with information so they know who you are and what you do. This could include an organizational fact sheet, annual report, membership overview and mission statement.

If you don’t have this material already, prepare something—even a one-page summary is better than nothing—and be sure to keep this information up to date. Have it available in the press section of your Web site as well as in a form you can easily fax, e-mail, or hand out. Generally the media will use the information you provide; if you provide nothing, they will find other sources maybe even your competition.

2. Specific organizational information. Once you have your organizational fact sheet, prepare one for relevant subgroups. This could include your foundation, for-profit subsidiary, and/or high profile chapters. Keep it simple. Just tell what each does, where they are, who’s in charge, and any other information that will be useful for explaining yourself to reporters who may know nothing about you.

3. Resources to help with potential crisis situations. Meet with key people in the association to develop a list of the most likely crises that might occur; once you get people thinking, you’ll create a list easily. Possibilities include financial or tax scandals; natural disasters, accidents that could result in injury, or terrorist attacks; employee misdeeds; and problems specific to your association’s field or location. In reality, lesser incidents that aren’t handled immediately also can become crises (or at least unfavorable headlines): protesters at your annual meeting, a pick pocket at the conference hotel, or food poisoning at the keynote lunch. It’s often these sorts of everyday occurrences that can do you in.

Next collect any information available—reports, clippings, internal actions, minutes of meetings and create a file for each potential crisis you identify. Include whatever might later help you discuss what happened, why it happened, and what protections or preventive measures were in place to keep it from happening. If similar incidents occurred in the past, have available all information on what was done to correct the problem. Again, keep these files current.

4. Key messages. For each potential crisis you identify, develop three key messages that you will include in all communications about the crisis. These depend on the situation but should convey, at a minimum:

• your association’s concern and sympathy about what happened;
• that you had procedures in place to prevent the situation from happening;
• that you are taking all possible actions to resolve the crisis

5. FAQ list. It’s pretty easy to figure out what questions the media will have about certain crisis situations. Take advantage of their predictability and develop for each potential crisis a list of frequently asked questions (and answers) that you can have at hand in case something happens. With this list at the ready, you’ll just have to update it with currently relevant Q&A as the situation unfolds.

For example, if you are in the meat industry when a finding of mad cow disease occurs, you’ll need to be prepared to answer questions about (1) what exactly mad cow disease is; (2) whether the entire beef supply is at risk; and (3) what the industry is doing to contain this outbreak and prevent future occurrences. You could easily come up with a more extensive list of potential questions, and it would be a good idea to do so—with answers, of course.

Although these generic items will help get you through a crisis, you’ll likely think of other things to include in your crisis response arsenal that are specific to your business or industry. The important thing is to take action today to have the help you need at hand if a crisis hits tomorrow.

If you already own a firearm, you need to start stockpiling ammunition. Chad has all the ammo you can buy over at Sportsman Outfit.