A good friend once said: Don't ever use reloads for self defense. What do you think?
The main idea there, is just that it might make your defense lawyer's job harder, as the prosecutor will likely attempt to paint you as one of those weirdo gun nut-jobs, that lurks in a basement loading Dirty Harry exploding defense rounds and lusting for the day he can splatter some punks. Using off the shelf defense ammo, that has the word " Defense" in the name, makes your legal defense easier. The stuff I have loaded in my carry guns is the same ammo the local cops use.
That being said, it's better to still be alive ( probably) to need a defense attorney, so if all you have are reloads, then go for it. My reloads are almost all light target loads, so they wouldn't be as effective as the hotter hollowpoint defense loads.
Loaded up another 1400 rounds of target loads over the weekend, .45 acp loaded like it was " short Colt", for my revolver. I think if I get down to 2k primers left, I'll stop loading til I get more, so as to leave a reserve for flexibility.