One thing I notice in the table provided by Bruce is the loads are absolutely anemic in their velocity compared to what we are used to shooting. Those loads would be very easy on both gun and shoulder, but I don't think anyone is shooting sub 1000 fps loads these days, not even low pressure loads in composite barrels.
I believe chamber pressure stresses barrels but it is recoil that stresses stocks. If one's stock is even slightly loose the receiver then hammers the stock head at some very small points of contact.
Take the first load, 12ga 1 ounce at 903 fps, shoot that in a 7.5 pound gun and it develops 6 ft lbs of recoil. Step that one ounce up to a more normal speed used today, 1225 fps and the recoil doubles to 12 ft lbs. Step up to a familiar 3 dram 1 1/8 ounce trap load at 1200 fps and recoil increases to 14 lbs. Now step up to the old standard hunting load of 3 3/4 dram 1 1/4 ounce (1330 fps) and recoil jumps by almost four fold to 22 ft lbs.
Most of our guns are 80 to 100+ years old, some are damaged from oil. We all have a choice on how much we want to punish our guns and shoulders but I can tell you the increased payloads and velocity return only small improvements in performance in my experience.
PS. The 1 1/4 ounce load Researcher mentions at 981 fps generates only 14 ft lbs of recoil. Just in terms of velocity used now vs. then we may be stressing our guns more now than they ever were.
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