Do you carry with your own reloads?

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Like I said, cut the melodrama. We want a literate forum and not the sky is falling. That is easy to see.

Also, use some logic - if you think that some apocalypse is going to raise the price of ammo to unaffordable - go buy a box now.

Don't expect us to run around like Chicken Little if one posts a polemic or jeremiad.
 
LOL - I'll check back in later. Remember that 'butter' on the popcorn in theaters is aged CLP with Yellow Dye 453-SXC in it.

BTW, if you can't afford ammo - then you certainly can't afford an expert witness to testify that your handloads are Okey-dokey or a lawyer.

Experts are running about $250 to 350 an hour plus expenses nowadays. :eek:
 
But who's going to pay for it? I know that a defendant is constitutionally entitled to representation, but I'm not sure if that includes expert witnesses.
 
Your state crime lab will be happy to furnish one free of charge. Generally if the defense asks for an examination here (western MO) which isn't ridiculous on its face, it is going to be done.
 
Sarge said:
Your state crime lab will be happy to furnish one free of charge. Generally if the defense asks for an examination here (western MO) which isn't ridiculous on its face, it is going to be done.
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That may be. But there are a whole lot of reasons why the interests of my client would be far better served by the use of an independent expert engaged by me.

Among other things, the state crime lab will probably be providing services to the prosecution. That makes for a clear, and entirely unsatisfactory, conflict of interests.
 
I can only speak for the MO Highway Patrol and KCPD's labs, but I will vouch for those two being objective, regardless of who it helps or hurts. If it was my reloads/my fat in the fire, I would rest easy that the results of their examination were accurate.
 
Sarge said:
I can only speak for the MO Highway Patrol and KCPD's labs, but I will vouch for those two being objective, regardless of who it helps or hurts. If it was my reloads/my fat in the fire, I would rest easy that the results of their examination were accurate.
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That's fine for you, but you're not a lawyer with a lawyer's ethical obligations to his client.
 
As a lawyer, one of my ethical obligations to my client is to put on the best defense that I can, while still meeting my other ethical obligations (candor before the tribunal, for example). If you present the same data to two or three different experts, you'll likely get two or three different conclusions. As someone's lawyer, I want to hire the expert whose conclusion is most advantageous to my client. That's not usually the state crime lab.
 
Thanks to all for helping me understand the importance GSR could play in a SD shooting, and the intrinsically important roll factory ammo would play to that end.
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Fourdogs, there's even more to it than that. MANY reloaders have a much higher opinion of their handloads than the actual quality of their reloads supports.

Where handloads are concerned, it's very difficult to achieve the reliability and quality of factory ammo. Yes, you can experiment around and find a more accurate load (maybe), but matching the overal quality of pistol loads is hard to do with handloads, though easier with revolver.

And, admittedly, the experienced reloader can turn out good pistol ammo that approaches or in some cases my equal the quality of better known brands of factory ammo.

Now, where rifles are concerned, that's a different matter. All my rifle ammo is handloaded to perform in a specific rifle after trying different bullets, powder charges, seating depths, etc.---but that's another subject.
 
Firearm (and other) experts are funny creatures. Though I believe them to be honest, and will not jeopardize they career by making false reports, they do make mistakes.

The silkiest one I've seen was a case where an individual was being charged for possession of "a firearm with a modified or removed serial number". I saved someone a lot of embarrassment by enlightening them to the fact that Remington never put serial numbers on their Model 721s.

I believe it would be of benefit for anyone to have another look at the investigation of any expert. Mistakes have been made.
 
I'll admit to seeing this from the perspective of 'the truth shall set you free' (or send yo azz to prison if you're guilty) but that perspective includes my prejudice--based on experience--that these guys are going to get it right, without worrying about who the results favor.

My other prejudice on defense experts comes from a 15 year-old murder case, where the defense expert manipulated a _____ auto shotgun to get it to malfunction on videotape. I caught him, resubmitted the shotgun for lab examination, and son-of-a-gun it worked just fine when operated properly.

Guess we're all, to one degree or another, products of our experience.
 
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