I have a family member whose father passed away last year that had a fairly large selection of ammo. He had several calibers and all in the original packaging, all in very good condition. I decided to buy all the ammo and gave a fair price based on current prices with a slight reduction because I can reload most of what he had for cheaper.
In this lot was 6 boxes (120 rds), of Remington Core-Lokt 45-70 405 Gr SP, again in the original boxes and in very good condition. Earlier this week I was working up some reloads in 45-70 using Berry's 350 grain round shoulder that according to Berry's has a max velocity of 1950 fps. I decided to shoot five rounds of the Remington through the chronograph before testing my reloads as a comparison.
All five factory rounds were around 1000 fps. According to three different sources I found online, this ammo should be 1600 fps at the muzzle. Five shot string:
1040, 1053, 1011, 1022, 996
Next I shot 5 of my reloads, to 1., validate my load, and 2., see if there was something wrong with my chronograph.
Five shot string of my handholds:
1640,1653 1618, 1609, 1633
The speed of my reloaded ammo is pretty close to the load data of 1700 for the powder type and charge with the bullet weight previously mentioned.
My question is why did the factory ammo shoot so slow?
In this lot was 6 boxes (120 rds), of Remington Core-Lokt 45-70 405 Gr SP, again in the original boxes and in very good condition. Earlier this week I was working up some reloads in 45-70 using Berry's 350 grain round shoulder that according to Berry's has a max velocity of 1950 fps. I decided to shoot five rounds of the Remington through the chronograph before testing my reloads as a comparison.
All five factory rounds were around 1000 fps. According to three different sources I found online, this ammo should be 1600 fps at the muzzle. Five shot string:
1040, 1053, 1011, 1022, 996
Next I shot 5 of my reloads, to 1., validate my load, and 2., see if there was something wrong with my chronograph.
Five shot string of my handholds:
1640,1653 1618, 1609, 1633
The speed of my reloaded ammo is pretty close to the load data of 1700 for the powder type and charge with the bullet weight previously mentioned.
My question is why did the factory ammo shoot so slow?