Learned my lesson about going to too low chamber pressure in 1960s when goose hunting on Texas Gulf coast. For a couple of years I had been using heavy shot - low velocity hand loads and doing quite well. I had also been slowly decreasing amount of powder and noticing how well pellets penetrated and killed geese. So far, so good. Then one morning there was a bit of ice on marsh weeds!!! BLOOPERS on every shot -- fortunately no wads stuck in chokes. I think at least one goose actually laughed......
Increased that lowest load by 2,0 grains of slow powder and never had problem again. Powder was Blue Dot, loaded to well below Hercules listed magnum loads.
After that experience, I increased my them preferred 12 gauge hunting load of 1 1/4 oz shot, propelled by enough IMRSR7625 to give about 1150 fps, by two grains for cool and cold weather hunting. Never had a problem, even well below freezing.
Niklas
