Brent, if you don't trust load data, as you said, it seems like you better have any and all loads tested. "It would be nice to have the ability to make objective measures of pressure or something closely related to it." Yes it would, but there isn't. Precision Reloading charges $5 a round last I knew. If you take a 2 3/4" shell and cut the last 1/4" off to remove the creases so you can get a nice roll crimp you then are loading 2 1/2" shells. Seeing how you're just removing the excess material for a crimp, you still have the same area for the load components. The only difference is the type of crimp. Years back when plastic wads were first introduced, reloading manuals suggested lowering powder drops by 10% because the plastic sealed better. So if going from plastic load data there's no way you're going to hurt anything if you use fiber wads. For years I've loaded fiber wad shells [ off and on ] and increased powder drops by a 1/2 grain with no ill effects. And fiber wads can be used in any shell, tapered or straight walled. At least I've used fiber wads in Remington hulls and they shoot just fine. If you pick a load with 5 to 8000psi, you'd have to screw up pretty bad before things got dangerous. It's shotgun shell reloading, not pistol where pressures are so much higher. Quit worrying and have some fun. Fiber wads and roll crimps will diffidently lower pressures.
