So now the question is when did the loads get reduced? Before or after "High Velocity" was dropped from the packaging...(since it seems that was just a trade name..)?
They were probably never up to published speeds. In those days, very few people outside of the gun industry had chronographs, so the guys in the marketing department had more influence on what figures got published than the guys in the lab. Unless you chronograph those loads yourself, you’re really comparing marketing strategies rather than actual velocities.
Ken Waters chronographed a lot of factory ammo and noted the results in his articles. You’d be surprised how many of them were a LOT slower than what the ammo maker claimed.
Okie John
