donkee, ISP2605, et al., "everybody knows" handloads will get you in so much trouble the judge will bypass settlements and jail time and send you straight to hell for defending yourself with handloads. This is largely the result of Massad Ayoob and his marvelous flying theories that may possible in theory, but after 20 odd years have failed to prove legit. Ayoob's proponent will tell you that it can happen and I guess it could happen, but apparently with all the shootings that go on, it hasn't happened during Ayoob's tenure or didn't happen in a manner than Ayoob found the information worthy of publishing.
In fact, in the materials he has presented, I have found ZERO that show handloads caused a person to lose a criminal or civil case. In fact, he hasn't ever presented a case where somebody was sued over handloads. If he has, somebody here will set me straight and list the actual document in which Ayoob reviews such matters, but I have yet to find one.
Go over to
http://www.thehighroad.org/search.php?searchid=744491 and take a look at the threads that come up. Several deal with the myth of handloads. In particular, this challenge to members turned up no verified cases of gun modifications or handloads causing things to go south during after action legal hassles, even though Ayoob warms of such matters...
http://www.thehighroad.org/showthrea...light=ayoobian
and this thread deals with the fact that Ayoob has presented a couple of cases where the police were sued over gun and ammo choice and the ammo was factory amm...
http://www.thehighroad.org/showthrea...light=ayoobian
Strangely, Ayoob notes in this recent work that if the prosecutor is going after your ammo, then they really have no substantive case against you and are just punching in the dark.
And before anyone says it, says, if you are in a shooting, expect the opposition to mention everything about what happened including prolonged discussions on gun choice and ammo choice. It is simply part of the process. Both sides of the suit would be remiss if they did not consider all the potential factors of the case, relevant or not.
If the best ammo you have for defense is handloads, then that is what you should load in your gun. The notion that you would intentionally load something you consider less capable because of some perceived future risk of suit is just plain stupid. A person trying to kill you is a true threat to you and you want to shoot that person with the best ammo you have so as to protect yourself. After all, if you fail to stop the person, you get to be dead and there will be no suit against you.
Mannlicher, can I borrow your statement for my signature line?