Thread: do you trust your hand loads over factory?

Allright, I admit it. I have gone window shopping for ammo before just to see how much I save over all the factory folks and the greater the difference the harder I laugh

Quote: But a better question is: do you trust someone elses hand loads over the factory loads. Good point. The .270 Winchester rifles in my family all share ammo. None of us push the .270 very hard. It does it's best at moderate pressures, with conservative velocities (in our rifles). We trade everything from 130gr soft points, to 150gr partitions, to 100gr HPs - with one exception: My 100gr HP load is quite a bit hotter than any of the...

hi , i have a friend with a old model 70 Winchester that would not closely group with many brands of factory ammo , he was about the sell the rifle , I gave him some reloads , nothing special 150 gr remington sp and military cases , now he use only my reloads as the rifle now groups for the first time , R

I try to keep REALLY good records of my handloads as I produce them, but I can't detail every hiccup I've ever had. There is a line that I won't cross where it becomes more like work and less like fun. (that line is different for each of us!) But I can give a quick bit of stats on one pistol that I have-- my EDC, a Glock 29. In service now for just over a year. Handloads out of this pistol: 850. (I know this because I know the...

Good topic. I've been reloading about 33 years; started on one of those little Lee 'hammer your cartridge together' outfits and those reloads were nothing to write home about- I was learning as I went. I do trust my reloads, with reservations.* I haven't used a factory load, handgun or rifle, on a game animal in over ten years. My loads are all a shade under published max for each application, but each is purpose-built and...

It had never dawned on me that factory may be more reliable than my reloads. My guns have never fired factory ammo, except one revolver I bought used may have seen some factory ammo. Accuracy and reliability have been 100% after quite many thousands of rounds. As far as I'm concerned factory ammo doesn't exist.

I actually trust my hand loads more than factory. I reload everything I shoot except 22 rimfire. I like you do inspections at every stage of the process and load on a single stage press. Loaded rounds are weighed and gauged. I trust factory loads also but the only thing I would add is that I would gauge and weigh every factory round. I've seen two different big name self-defense pistol rounds that would not chamber. One case was not...

I trust my hand-loads implicitly and to a much higher degree than factory ammo. In 20+ years of on and off loading, I've had exactly one round fail to fire. I don't shoot much factory center-fire, mostly just to get cases when I need them. I've had a few rounds fail to fire and one hang-fire (WWII era 8mm Mauser) in factory ammo.

was at the range today picking up some powder and got into a discussion about handloads Vs. factory loads. the fella i was talking with said he only trusts his reloads for range/target practice. never for hunting, competition, or self defence. i have probably loaded 25,000 pistol rounds(4years ago) 44mag, and .40s&w. my rate of failure(once i figured out what i was doing) was nowhere near as high as factory. i definately trust my hand...

Implicitly. My ammo in MY guns! Until recently, the only misfires I ever had were with factory ammo. I bought some CCI primers from 1991 that I knew no history about. 1 misfire in over 1K of these is liveable, to me. All my SD ammo is handloaded, and always will be.I was a quality control inspector for too long! Andy