Reloading Ammo for Defensive Training
Grant CunninghamDescription
Considering ammunition prices recently, it can be challenging to afford training and the practice you need to maintain that training. PDN Contributor Grant Cunningham visits Hornady Manufacturing for a look at why reloading your own ammunition might make sense if you are a serious defensive shooter.
I'm here at the Hornady booth at the NRA show looking at Hornady reloading presses. Now you may think this is kind of a strange place for me to be. I'm of course, a big proponent of self-defense training and self-defense practice. And of course I've said before, I don't recommend that you carry hand-loaded ammunition for self-defense, but I am a very big proponent of getting out and getting good training and good practice in those self-defense skills that you really need. And the way to do that, I found is to reload your ammo. Now you may have heard over the last few years that we've had this little ammo shortage, right? Haven't been able to buy ammo, when you could find it, it was really expensive. All the people were hoarding the ammo that they bought at Walmart. Okay, you know all about this. Well, the great thing about the people who were reloading ammo during this time is that they were able to craft the ammo that they needed to get out and train. Now, if you're not doing that, you're in the same situation as a lot of my students were where they couldn't get out and train. They couldn't get out and practice because they didn't have enough ammunition or they couldn't find enough ammunition or it ate into the budget. That's where reloading comes in. And that's why I reload all of my own practice ammo. And I do it on a Hornady press. Now, if you're reloading your own ammunition what you can do is you can craft that practice ammunition that exactly duplicates the point of impact, the recoil characteristics and the bullet weight of the self-defense ammo that you're carrying in your gun for defensive shooting. And that's why I use the Hornady reloading press to do that. I make exact duplicates of my carry ammo, that factory ammo that I keep in there for all those good legal reasons that we talk about. And then I go out and train with that exact duplicate hand-loaded ammo that I've done on my Hornady press. So while everybody else is moaning and complaining about not being able to find ammo and it's costing too much you can be taking those cases that are coming out of your gun, reloading them, and then going back out and shooting more and practicing more and get that training in that you really should have if you're going to be a responsible defensive shooter.
Reloading ammo for defensive training makes a lot of sense. There are many benefits to loading your own ammo for this purpose. For me the greatest benefit I find loading my own defensive ammo is to assemble premium grade bullets for 1/3 the price of factory defensive ammo. This cuts the overall cost of training and allows me to train more liberally without having to restrict the volume of my shooting defensive type of ammo. Having a ready supply of ammo, I am less likely to stop a range session short because I didn't bring an adequate supply with me. It also allows me to experiment with various bullet designs and weights to see which ones cycle properly in my handguns. Another difference is most premium defensive ammo is sold 20-25 rounds per box. whereas in one loading session I may load 500-1000 rounds. This gives me a greater cache of ammo on hand for use even when store supplies dry up or prices escalate.