Markley, A bunch of us got together when the .204 first came out with their published speeds. We've tried several factory loadings out of various brands of rifles for the cartridge and were unable to achieve the level of speed that they advertised... In most cases, they were way under, on an average..
At best, the 32gr Hornady was pumping a hair of over 4,000 fps, instead of the 4,100 fps and the 40gr was doing good to reach 3850 fps...While I'm sure you can load to achieve faster velocities with careful monitoring, the factory test barrels probably were of finer quality. I'm pretty sure that their chrono's were much better than we were using..
Each rifle has enough individual characteristics in both metallurgy factors, as well as production factors, that developing loads that will work in all of them safely, is why it is done by people that have engineering backgrounds and lots of test equipment to be used in the process...
Due to liability and general safety factors, they can't just throw a bunch of components together and send the finished product out on the general shooting community....Some reloaders, don't take that kind of attitude about their own loads, much less for rounds that will be used by someone else...
There are very few things that I will ever say "Can't be done.", but there are several that I will say "Shouldn't be done,"
