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BTW, here's an opportunity for me once again to mention what I call benchmark loads (not the trademark type by Hodgdon).
When you find a pet load, you should record exactly what goes into it, of course. But how do you re-create it without a lot of testing when you buy a new lot number of powder? With a benchmark load.
Take your pet load and reduce the powder charge by 5%. Carefully test-fire at least five and preferably ten shots. Record exactly what it produces (velocity, SD, spread, group, pressure if possible, etc) That's your benchmark load (BL).
When you get a new lot of powder or primers or bullets, use the new lot to prepare a batch of the BL. Test-fire. If the results of the new batch are the same as the BL, you can go right back to your pet load safely. If the test batch performs less than the BL, you'll need to work up slightly to get back to the pet load.
But - and here's the real reason for the benchmark load - if the new load tests HIGHER than the BL, the new component would have made your pet load dangerous or at least closer to dangerous. The BL allows you to learn this without ever firing a dangerous load - which is what would have happened if you had just re-created the old pet load with the new component.
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