Iowa Defense law? reloads?

[Steel185]

Does anyone know where I can find the laws on home defense in relations to ammo? Can I use reloaded and/or cast bullets in CCW or home defense? Iowa resident. I cant find the law and I hear different info from friends.

 

[Kleanbore]

The use of force laws do not address what kind of ammunition may be used for home defense.

 

[Steel185]

Thanks for the quick reply.
Anything on CCW? I can use reloaded ammo at anytime, I keep hearing I can't in CCW or home defense.

 

[Jorg Nysgerrig]

I keep hearing I can't in CCW or home defense.

I suspect you are hearing people recommending against it, not telling you it is illegal.

 

[mljdeckard]

We do this a lot. The legal reasons to not use hand loads are a bit hypothetical. In a perfect world, it wouldn't matter. The world is FAR from perfect, and a D.A. who is intent on hanging you up may try to paint your use of hand loads as irresponsible. Unlikely, but no one can say it's impossible.

 

[Lost Sheep]

I keep hearing I can't in CCW or home defense.

I suspect you are hearing people recommending against it, not telling you it is illegal.

There is some suggestion that use of reloaded or custom ammunition is inadvisable (legally speaking), but the evidence is thin. Use of deadly force is use of deadly force and a legitimate use is legitimate no matter what ammunition was used.

Where reloads MIGHT be problematic is if peripheral evidence (gunshot residue, actual velocity, etc.) might become a determining factor and reloads might not be thought to be reliable (in an evidentiary sense), where a factory-controlled product would be presumed to be more reliable. Such situations are vanishingly rare in criminal court cases and similarly rare in civil courts.

But a REALLY zealous prosecutor might try to make mileage on the argument that "So, factory ammunition was not devastating enough/deadly enough/cruel enough for you, huh? So you created your own ultra ammo? We will take you to the cleaners for extraordinarily cruel intent."

I have yet to hear of a specific court case where this (cruelty) argument was used successfully. But I have heard that it might cost you more money to answer the accusations.

Use of hollowpoints by police faced the same kind of discrimination when they were introduced (and continues still in some communities).

My personal choice is to use reloads (tuned to the same performance as factory self-defense ammo) for practice and the factory self-defense ammo for use for real.

I hope my opinions have helped.

Lost Sheep

 

[Ehtereon11B]

I don't know of any cases where handloaded ammo that was used in a SD/HD situation was legally attacked. The advice against handloaded ammo is more of a guideline of "what if a hardline DA labels you as malicious/evil etc" for using custom ammunition. For the most part, what ammunition you use has no legal guideline as long as it isn't some class of exotic ammo such as tracers, incendiary, Dragon's breath 12ga, flachettes and whatnot.

Stay on the safe side and use factory load ammo. Find what works best and cast ammo as close to the factory ammo as you can for practice.

 

[Steel185]

I was thinking just as Ehtereon11B was suggesting. It is cheap "insurance" to get a box of SD/HD ammo and leave the gun loaded with those (rarely fired) and use my cast and reloads for everything else (hunting, target competitons).

Thanks everyone, i was worried i couldn't find the law on the books, but now i know why.

Thanks again

 

[Kleanbore]

Posted by Lost Sheep: Use of deadly force is use of deadly force and a legitimate use is legitimate no matter what ammunition was used.

That is true.

Whether the shooting will be judged to have been justified will, however, be determined after the fact by an examination of the evidence evaluated by the investigators and if it goes that far, admitted in court. The evidence is apt to be fragmentary, and some of it may well be contradictory.

Where reloads MIGHT be problematic is if peripheral evidence (gunshot residue, actual velocity, etc.) might become a determining factor and reloads might not be thought to be reliable (in an evidentiary sense), where a factory-controlled product would be presumed to be more reliable.

That's almost true. But those familiar with the rules of admissibility of scientific forensic evidence would know that testimony about gunshot residue from handloads will not be admitted.

Such situations are vanishingly rare in criminal court cases and similarly rare in civil courts.

True.

The use of GSR evidence is routine, but cases in which the shooters' credibility depends upon GSR evidence as proof or disproof of their accounts of shooting distance are very rare. And the use of handloads in such cases is exceedingly rare.

But should the issue arise, the use of handloads would be determinative. Again, rules of evidence.

There is a thorough discussion of the subject here.

The likelihood of one ever becoming embroiled in a problem over the use of handloads is very low indeed, but the potential consequences are very severe indeed. It is a risk that can be easily mitigated but only in advance.

My personal choice is to use reloads (tuned to the same performance as factory self-defense ammo) for practice and the factory self-defense ammo for use for real.

Excellent advice.

 

[TennJed]

I have always wondered if the people that advise against using reloads for carry also advise against carrying a spare mag or speed loader. If a DA or the media wants to label you as evil for having custom ammo, they will have a field day with they guy carrying 30 + rounds. I of course do not feel this way but it just seems to me that it would be easier to label bad intent to someone loader down with ammo than using handloads

 

[Frank Ettin]

Don't see any reason for going down this path again.

The subject has been pretty well covered, including links to other relevant threads and posts, here.