TexasCHLforum.com

It never entered my mind for the last 50 years if you had to shoot a person for just cause that the kind of ammo could be
used against you in a court of law. I have read the gun guru Massad Ayoob says you should only use factory ammo.
because it will upset the crime scene people. I dont mind having a few rounds of factory around to carry with and at my age
It is all short time anyway. I am wondering if others have any info on this topic.
ET-ret

Welcome, and you can use Speer Gold dots or Win SXT Ammo, both are good.

It really is an overblown issue. A prosecuting attorney can try to use almost anything against one in court. But an educated person, which most people who reload are, can easily defend their position in court. It really is this simple. As the victim of a crime you simply grabbed the closest most appropriate thing to you in order to defend yourself, for these purposes your pistol, and used whatever ammunition was in it at the time. What ammunition I (and any of us use) is the ammunition that is most accurate and reliable in said pistol. All other considerations in ammunition selection are secondary to this. After all a Hornady XTP is still a Hornady XTP regardless of who placed the powder under it.

The only case that I've seen Ayoob specifically discuss was one where the ballistics and gunshot residue played a big part in unravelling what actually happened.

Husband loaded some bunny-fart light loads for a recoil sensitive wife. She committed suicide. Standard gunshot residue test concluded she had to have been shot from greater than 10 feet away. Hubbie's ammo was not admissible for ballistic testing and he was convicted for murder.

A very narrow set of circumstances where handload was an issue, but plausible.

if you had to shoot a person for just cause that the kind of ammo could be
used against you in a court of law

Not in Texas.

Justified use of force precludes you from civil cases.

SRO

"bullets lightly touched with nail polish ".... I don't understand, what is the nail polish do?

NordicTexan wrote:SRO

"bullets lightly touched with nail polish ".... I don't understand, what is the nail polish do?

Primer sealant. Not recommended, but some people swear by it.

AndyC wrote:If you're going to carry handloaded ammo for SD, keep an accurate record of the load (and have a box spare as exemplars that the Ballistics techs can test - should the issue ever even come up).

In the case mentioned above, he had full load records and a partially full box. None of it was admissible as he could have made up a non-documented load and the chain of custody was tainted by virtue of the fact the suspect had full access to all of it.

Ayoob's article discussed at length the evidence issues with the trial.

Thanks for the replies. I guess the thing to do is keep some factory ammo in my carry guns. So far I have been lucky not to have
a serious problem. But you never know with all of the home invasions going on when you will have to use one. I did know any of the
details of the FL case but better to be safe than sorry.
ET-ret