do any of you guys use your own reloads for your ccw piece? or do you guys use factory ammo. i just

finished setting up my new dillon press. i will be using it alot for practice/target rounds but thought

about reloading for personal protection rounds also. what do you guys think?  

Quoted: do any of you guys use your own reloads for your ccw piece? or do you guys use factory ammo. i just finished setting up my new dillon press. i will be using it alot for practice/target rounds but thought about reloading for personal protection rounds also. what do you guys think?

Reloading for practice is great.  You will probably save a good deal of money in the long run, or at least be able to shoot more for the same amounts of money.  

However if you are brand new to reloading I would not reload your carry ammo.  Stick with good reliable factory ammo until you have a few hundred thousand rounds of experience reloading your practice ammo.  

Reload your practice ammunition to save costs.  it's much cheaper to handload for practice, but NEVER carry reloads as a defensive round.  The liability of carrying a "rolled your own" is way too high, regardless of your attention to detail and the components used.  Talk to any reputable CCW instructor or defense attorney, and they will tell you to buy your defensive ammunition and use to commercial stuff only.  Besides, would you really trust your life to something that you made yourself, rather than something manufactured for LEOs?  I'm good, but I'd rather have professional manufacturer quality control.

Quoted: Besides, would you really trust your life to something that you made yourself, rather than something manufactured for LEOs?  I'm good, but I'd rather have professional manufacturer quality control.

Some people would say the opposite.

If it were me I'd buy the defensive stuff and load practice ammo to the same spec as you carry stuff. You're not going to get a definitive answer on this. This question has popped a lot with no real answers. So, go with what you're comfortable with.

First off excellent choice on the Dillon.  Second, it would depend on what you are shooting, and what you are defending yourself against.  I would have no problem working up a hot defensive round for say.... Bears, Mountain Lions, etc.  A .44 mag, .357, it's hard to get much hotter than a .454 Cassull.  I also would have faith in my ability to make an effective defensive round for any of my autos.  More so than a factory.  If I see the powder going into the case, I know it's in there.  No guess work.  That said, Bears, Mountain Lions, etc. don't have lawyers.   Cor-Bon, Federal, Winchester, and the like have liability insurance, and on staff attorneys, to cover them against shady, gold digging, lawyers.  You probably don't.