In fact, from a legal prospective, it would seem to me that manufacturers are exempt from any liability in the use of handloads.
Think of it this way. If you buy a commercial cartridge that turns out to be overloaded and you get injured by how the rifle reacts to it,..who gets sued? The ammo manufacturer or the rifle manufacturer?
You contradict yourself. The question is not whether the cartridge is handloaded or commercial, the question is if it is dangerously overloaded, regardless of whether it is handloaded or factory.
No contradiction.
If a firearm fails due to an overloaded cartridge, who is responsible for the failure? The rifle or the overloaded cartridge?
In this case, the owner was the manufacturer of the ammo.
So the question is, if a commercial ammo manufacturer sold some overloaded ammo and the rifle shooting it failed, who is liable? The ammo manufacturer or the rifle manufacturer?
Yes, you do. I'll turn your question on its head.
If a handloader loads ammunition that is within SAAMI specs and the firearm fails, does the firearm manufacturer escape liability just because the cartridge was a handload?
How will they ever be able to prove that the cartridge which destroyed the rifle was SAAMI spec?
There's no way to do it. It's been fired and it's gone. So that's why I say that firerarm manufacturers should be exempt from damage to a firearm from the use of handloaded ammo.
That doesn't mean that I'm anti handloading or even that I'm anti hotloads.
It's just the nature of the beast. The firearm manufacturers have no control over what somebody cooks up and fires through their guns.
The only reasonable way for them to address the issue is to claim no responsibility or warranty for the use of handloaded ammo.
