Mixing Loads for Self-Defense

Question
QUESTION: My pistol was purchased mostly for fun, and I live in a low crime rate area in a northern climate.  However, I practice self-defense tactics, and carry the pistol into certain locales, just in case.  I have read that there are concerns about rapidly expanding (XTP??) bullets having poor penetration through bulky winter clothing.  What is your opinion about alternating low expansion (e.g., FMJ or SP) with higher expansion bullets in the magazine?

ANSWER: If there's any question about the justifiability of a shooting you were in, mixing ammunition may cause you a real nightmare. It is true that frangible ammunition, such as MagSafe or Glaser does not work well against heavy clothing.

With conventional hollow points clothing tends to clog the hollow point, impeding or eliminate expansion. The projectile will often act like an FMJ. Thus, penetration would actually be deeper.

Pick one load that you can shoot well and that has a good reputation for incapacitation and stick with it.



---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Many thanks.  Could you please expand on the nightmare that might result from mixing ammunition?  A handloading forum that I follow had a thread on the legal implications of using handloads, but the question was not resolved.  Is there a relationship between the two topics?  Thanks again.

Answer
Yes, the handload analogy is a good one.

I seem to recall a case a number of years ago in which a man wanted his wife to be able to keep a .38 revolver for self-protection, but she was sensitive to the recoil. Believing that some gun is better than no gun, he handloaded lighter loads for her.

As the account unfolded, events in the woman's life led to depression, then eventually suicidal inclinations. As the man told the story, he came in the bedroom one day to see his wife with the gun to her head. He rushed to her to take the gun away, but just as he reached her, she shot and killed herself. He pulled the gun out of her hands and tried to administer first aid, and then called called 911.

Beside himself with grief, the man fully cooperated with the police investigation. The detectives had a question: "If the woman shot herself, what would the GRS (gunshot residue) pattern look like?" They examined the cartridge cases, went out and obtained that ammunition, and tested the GSR pattern. With the factory ammunition, the GRS would have embedded much more deeply than it did with the light handloads. The conclusion drawn, by the detectives however (based on the assumption that the ammunition was the factory ammunition) was that the gun was further away from her head than she could have held it herself when it was discharged. The man was arrested and charged with his wife's murder.

The detectives' theory that led to his arrest should be easy to counter - simply introduce the handload information. Except for the fact that the court disallowed it. The prosecution was thus able to convince the jury that the woman could not have shot herself or the GSR would be more deeply embedded, and the man was convicted of murder.

What does this have to do with mixing ammunition? Perhaps nothing. I can't foresee a specific problem, but then again, I could never has foreseen the problem above.

For whatever ammunition you carry, I would recommend retaining the box. If you have to use that ammunition in self-defense, having the information of brand, type, grain weight, and lot number etc may be helpful as exculpatory evidence. This would go double if you mix ammunition. Document what you carry, and tell as many (appropriate) people as you can that carry two types of ammunition is your practice.

It is for forestall any such potential complications that every police agency I know has general orders that specifically prohibit mixing ammunition in the gun. If the agency changes ammunition type, all old ammunition must be used at the range or turned in before the new ammunition type is loaded in the gun for duty carry.