Ammunition companies spend a lot of money producing and testing SD loads. I could do much of the same testing, but I don't have the reputation of Winchester, Buffalo Bore or Cor-Bon, so I carry the best defensive ammo I can find, and pay what it costs.

Attorneys are paid to sway the "facts" to their side. If I shoot someone with handloads, no matter how justified, any lawyer worth his salt is going to paint me as the Anti-Christ, a sick, warped, psychotic little man with a secret desire to shoot someone, anyone, with ammunition SO DEADLY he couldn't buy it from an ammo maker, he had to skulk into his basement and create it in his secret la-BOR-a-tory. Moohoohahahaha.

That's what they do. I choose not to give them that easy road to take, and carry Gold Dots or Silvertips or some other premium stuff, because my carcass is worth it.