About using Reloaded Ammo
at
Oregon Firearms Academy LLC

Oregon Firearms Academy LLC (OFA) strives to provide our Alumni with a world-class learning environment & experience. Creating a unique learning environment requires a partnership between OFA and yourself. It takes both of us to turn your vision of learning into a reality. Students often want to compromise their learning experience with hobby reloads that are inferior to factory loads both in safety and quality. We know . . .you probably already disagree with this statement. Therefore in an attempt to substantiate our claim we are providing you with a rationale for this policy.

Our policy at the Academy is we would prefer students and our staff to only use factory new ammo for a multitude of reasons. This FAQ is an attempt to answer this question so it will provide a basis of understanding and appreciation for our stance on reloads.

We are confident that after you read this rationale you'll conclude the extra dollars invested in factory ammo for your class at the Academy is a worthwhile investment for the reasons listed below.

The primary reason we prefer factory ammo is to mitigate accidents which are almost always caused by defective ammo directly related to the manufacturing process. As a general rule reloads create more accidents due to improperly or inconsistently loaded ammo than factory ammo. We are not saying factory ammo doesn't have its problems occasionally as well but reloaders and hobby reloaders don't have the knowledge, training, experience, consistency, quality control, and quality assurances as a manufacturer of NATO/SAMMI spec ammo does.

Besides hobby reloaders don't have medical or liability insurance if one of their cartridges suddenly goes kaboom and hurts another student or OFA staff member. If one of your reloads gives out and hurts another student or a member of our staff then you may be held liable by the student or the student's survivors. If you are using factory ammo and it hurts someone then you can fall back onto the factory and they have to defend their product. If you bring and use reloads then you are the manufacturer and you have to defend your product!

Keep in mind we have around 600 to 800 students attending our courses each year and we have absolutely no idea how competent one reloader is to the next. And to be quite honest almost everyone who inquires if they can use reloads always assures us "they are a good reloader and have never had any problems." Well after having a series of problems with reloads over the years we decided for the safety of our students and staff we are no longer permitting reloads on the campus. Our experience and the experience of other schools in the business have been the same . . . reloads eventually cause accidents and problems.

This is in no way personal to any student or any student's ability to manufacturer safe & reliable reloads. We're confident some of our students are a very careful and safe reloaders . . . but for ever safe and careful reloader there are about two to four who are not. We at the Academy just have no way of determining or qualifying who is and who isn't a safe, careful, and competent reloader when they show up to a class with a box full of home made ammo.

Consider this . .do you want to be training along side some hot shot reloader when his/her gun comes apart and sends fragments from their handgun into your face? As you will find out our staff stands extremely close to you in order to coach and determine problems. If a gun would kaboom it would cause some serious injuries. . .we are very close to one another and at times in the shoot house literally shooting right beside each other even to the point of making contact with one another. Fighting with guns is different than just target shooting. .. often you are extremely close to one another. In target shooting or in IDPA/IPSC typically there is only one person on the range with an RSO behind them. Often when we train at the Academy we have students solving problems with other people standing beside them, behind them, and under them. We're teaching real world self defense and not leisurely target shooting!

The other reason is quality. Our students travel a great distance to train with us; they give up a day with the family or work, and pay good money to attend our classes. If they bring reloads, often, they will have problems. When they have problems then they do not learn what we are teaching them nor do they enjoy the class. When we don't have happy or satisfied students then we don't usually have returning customers. Even if someone else is having troubles with their guns it affects the entire class!

We've had several experiences when reloads were the direct cause of why a student failed the qualifier/test and was unable to wear the OFA Gold or Silver pin. Why invest several hundreds of dollars in time, equipment, and tuition only to blow your test because you are trying to saved $0.5 on a reload?

When we used to allow students to bring reloads we used to have a lot of gun related problems and our staff spent more time fixing people's guns rather than teaching which is what you are paying us to do . . . after we starting asking students to bring factory ammo the problems have been reduced substantially and we spend more quality time with the students.

The bottom line is this . . .we prefer students to not bring reloads to class! However, if you bring them and your fellow students find out you are using reloads they will come to the staff and ask us why we are allowing you to use them . . .and then we'll have no recourse but to ask you to switch to factory ammo. And if you have an accident with your reloads/gun and someone gets injured or hurt then you are on your own financially because you are considered the manufacturer of your own ammo.

Please try to understand . . . we are not trying to be harsh, mean spirited, insensitive or hard headed about this . . .we are just trying to operate a safe and educational sound business that benefits our students. Training with firearms is very hazardous. Then when you add in an unknown variable such as "whose ammo is safe and whose ammo isn't safe" it just complicates things more. We realize some of our students are probably world-class reloaders but most aren't and we just cannot qualify who is and who isn't before the start of each class to a degree that we can operate our business in a consistently safe, productive, and high quality manner that we are known for.

When people train at OFA they understand we do everything a reasonable person can do to keep problems and accidents to a minimum.