LB,
I don't disagree with your assertion that pressures will change on a factory made load due to powder lots. I do believe that pressures will not likely be wildly all over the map, especially for popular high quality target loads. The consumers of a STS or AA load are shooting these loads because they can depend on them. Remember who they have to deal with, target shooters are a persnickety group if there ever was one. The least little thing upsets their carefully balanced biorythem, star alignment or whatever. A shell that has a different report than they're used to will set them off for sure. A Win AA 1 oz/1200 fps skeet load will likely never see near SAAMI limits just due to Win's need for a powder loading density similarity and velocity consistancy, and that they undoubtedly spec the powder, albeit the tolerance of the powder may be different than the stuff we buy. Promo loads are yet another animal, especially the high velocity stuff with heavy shot charges.
However, to be prudent, lot testing of factory ammo should be done for pressure data if unusual pressure limits are critical to your application/safety and that mfr doesn't provide pressure data in the packaging. Which brings me to ask; why should we trust an inquiry (letter, email, phonecon, etc.) from an ammo mfr regarding pressure, if it's not on the published data for that load? I get the impression that some of the sources of shorter shells that didn't publish pressure data have provided data in correspondence to those that inquired. Why would this be more trusted than Winchester, Rem, or Federal?
Last edited by Chuck H; 04/09/07 11:54 AM.
