If it’s grouping acceptably for you, then no. You can’t have a high confidence in the shape of the bell curve with a small sample size so just go with your velocities and decide if you need to adjust the load to meet your minimum specification. For my loads, I need to meet 125 PF, so I develop loads for 130-132 PF and keep tabs on the SD to help insure that random sample at the chrono stage will make 125.
I use magnum pistol primers for everything these days and try to use Federal only. I know that certain powders, HS-6 being one of them, perform much better with magnum primers. Before my chronograph and other shooting equipment got stolen I spent a lot of time comparing velocities and spreads, trying to find some sort of magic, but I wound over thinking. I have never replaced the Chrony because now all I care about is accuracy. I have a real good idea of the velocity based on manuals and experience and less things to think about. Either a load shoots good or it doesn't
Thanks for the feedback. I haven't bought factory 44 spl ammo in about 2 yrs. (Since I bought the press.) Ot's too expensive. SO it's good to have a factory reference to compare to.
Then you can get into outside temp, humidity, altitude time of day, moon phase.
At most 25 yards, and that's rare. 20 is more common and the norm is 15. And I agree, I'm much more likely to miss because of technique or fatigue than because of an 80 fps drop in velocity.
Crimp can affect velocity. More crimp will usually increase velocity. Another problem you're probably seeing is at such low pressure you're getting inconsistent sealing of the cases against the cylinder walls.
