i have read many threads over the last few days where someone would respond with "If you use XX ammo a jury will have a filed day with you"

Would someone please post some evidence to confirm this when a shoot was legit?

I read an article a few years ago saying this was nonsense. That all modenr ammunition is designed to make the largest wound possible and therefore is designed to kill.

My personal opinion is that if it is a good shoot then ammo choice is a non issue as you are in a life or death situation and are defending yourself.

Has anyone ever lost a criminal or civil case over ammo selection in a true self defense case?

mike

in the article it was discussing that very fact. And they stated that "who made the load" had never come up in a case. Assuming it was an available bullet ... ie.. Gold dot... there should be zero interest on either side of the case. The only reason they gave for staying with factory ammo was for reliability.

If i was using a handload of a comercially avaialble bullett why would it matter? Most self defense loads are already loaded hot or at least on the upper end of the load spectrum.

There again we are assumming a legit self defense shoot.

mike

The only reason I'm going to use deadly force on someone is to ... duhh, kill them. The only reason I'm going to kill someone is in the defence of my of my families life.

If presented with one target I will empty the magazine into it. If presented with two I will double tap my way into emptiness sharing between the two ...

Once deadly force is authorized bring it on 110%

kodoc,

i am not looking for might be issues. I am looking for actual cases where this has ever come up. I have never heard of one and as of that article a couple of years ago they could not find any.

Has this ever been brought up in a case?

mike

the ayoob atricles i have read have never dealt with a clean shoot. They were always tied to an LEO shooting or a criminal shooting that was a self defense realted shooting.

ie... cleatus stole my truck so i shot him or XX police department is using non humane hollowpoint bullets.

While i know that no shooting will ever be a black and white situation i have serious doubts any court will convict a shooter that was trully in defense of his life for using an evil baby killing assualt bullet. At least in my state i am 99% sure. California... all bets are off.

mike

As mentioned by others, I believe Ayoob has counseled against the use of handloads for defense rounds.
Basically this de-fuses a possible attempt by the other side to paint you as not being satified with off-the-shelf bullets, but being sufficiently bloodthirsty (and posibly trigger-happy) to make your own.  Smears like that sometimes work, so it is wise to aviod being placed in that kind of situation if at all possible.  And, of course, in this instance, it is.
IIRC, he has, in the past, cited examples of individuals who were hassled by the opposition for using handloads.
Again, as stated above, factory stuff is so good, that one need not worry about the efficacy of store bought.
In sum, Ayoob's reccommendation is to use handloads for practice, and an effective store-bought with identical ballistics for defense.
Ayoob's been involved in [i]beaucoup[/i] court cases; I'd give his considered opinion a good deal of weight.

i do use factory ammo for carry.

this is for discussion only. And as of yet no one has made any argument against it other than it MIGHT be an issue. Heck i MIGHT get sued for taking a leak off my front porch.

A good attorney could make a case that you should have never been carrying a gun to begin with as you obviously had intent to use it. Or you didn't have to use a .45 when you could have used a .38.

Also this does not just apply to handloads. what about commercial ammo. Is a hydro-shock really any worse than a black talon/ranger in court? Is ammo marketed for LEO use only a problem? Will it matter? Will anything other than the fact you pulled the trigger even be a real issue?

mike

Actually, it HAS been an issue in some trials.  An unpleasant hole to climb out of (if you can) especially if easily avoided by using commercial ammo.
As to whether commercial ammo "A" is more likely to cause an issue than commercial ammo "B", I don't know. They all are probably used by some LEO agency somewhere.
One way arount this potential problem is to determine which ammo is used by your local/county/state LEOS, and pick the one that's best for you.