I have an old Stevens 215, it's a 12 gauge SXS with external hammers. It's mechanically flawless. I've used it quite successfully to reduce the resident starling population, I have used 1 1/8oz factory loads a 1200fps only thus far, and the gun has handled them just fine. I know that these old guns have been known to shoot loose easily with heavier loads, so I've been hesitant to run anything heavier through it. I would like to load some 1 1/4oz shells, and have data that is relatively low pressure for that shot weight. This gun, it has been approved as safe, all the same I would like to keep things below 10'000psi. Anyways, I'm aware that pressure is not a major factor in recoil, and that heavy recoil will do more to wear the gun than the pressure. I was wondering if any of you know what level of recoil this thing could take before wearing out, IE shooting loose. My max planned load would be 1 1/4oz @ 1250fps. This gun only locks up on the metal extension between the barrels.
