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I see what you are saying and it makes sense. After you do the "Super Creed" mod I assume you can no longer shoot factory Creedmoor ammo, is that correct?
This is the case with many, many loaders and cartridges. If a precise pressure testing tool was as available and affordable as say, a magneto speed, cartridge performance as we know it today would be much, much different. When apples are compared to apples in terms of pressure, there isn't much replacement for displacement. You can tweak cartridge design to be a little more efficient, however cartridges that are generally considered to be "more efficient" are also usually of a design that tends to hide pressure better (less body taper, steeper shoulder angles) so they may not be as efficient in terms of better utilizing their volume, but instead they are actually more efficient at not showing pressure signs, which, for all intents and purposes, is accomplishing the same thing. So better case design, in conjunction with tougher brass, I believe makes things deceiving. Run a 6.5 creed at 70k, and run a 6.5 prc at 70k, and they won't be so close as some circumstances show. But similar can be said if you ran a 6.5 creed at 70k, then ran a 6.5x55 at 70k, they would not be that close. However, 70k in a 6.5x55 would likely show some pretty stout pressure signs, where you may not notice much in the creed.
One of my retirement goals is to buy a pressure trace setup. I have a friend in the bullet industry and I was surprised to hear that a lot of the data out there is not actual pressure tested data. For example the Berger data with R26 is quickload based. According to my friend powder manufacturers data is largely pressure tested but not so for bullet companies.
Even these though, from my understanding, have limited accuracy. From what I understand, you use factory ammunition to get a "base line" for the pressure, then shoot other loads and compare....this is similar to looking at the velocity on the box of ammo and using that for your drop charts. So many things come in to play, that there is no way it can be reliable. There are other things the pressure trace does as well, such as pressure curves and stuff, but I mean in terms of simply reading max pressure. If your simply using factory ammo to get a base line, that is just comparing your other loads to factory ammo, it isn't giving you the exact pressure of your load. Some factory loads I have shot have nearly blown primers, factory Berger 6.5 cm ammo out of a ruger I was working on for instance, and I recall one 30-06 that, with 165 factory federal ammo out of a howa, was essentially duplicating 30-30 performance. If you don't know the numbers of what your comparing against, you essentially don't have solid values.
LoL yeah with the magical reloader 26 pixie dust your 6.5 creedmoor can gain 500 FPS in a 20" barrel. It is faster than a 264 win Mag and better yet it can match the all new 26 Nosler that needs a 26" barrel to achieve those same velocities. LoL!!! Sorry couldn't help myself.
