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from my own personal experience with prairie dog shooting (the only hot weather shooting I do) there seems to be a risk in high pressures with heat.....but I'll qualify that a little.....
first there's been a long list of shooters before me that have warned of this problem.....and so many that it begins to carry a lot of credibility.

second.....all my loads for this game are handloads and usually to the "book" max.....

third...some of my rounds can get so hot that I can't even touch them if they're left in the sun where something can magnify the rays.....dashboards seem to do that well.....at times cartridges left in the auto can become extremely hot.....we're talking about unable to hold them in your hands hot.....

It is at these times when I have experienced pierced primers.....sticky extraction, and flattened primers.

Also it's at times like these that the gun barrel can get very warm.....and as much as I hate to say it at times to the point that I can't hold the gun by the barrel. A cartridge in the chamber for ten minutes in that condition can be very hot.....

It must be said that I have no experience with factory loaded ammo in this condition and that of the thousands of rounds I've shot under these conditions have I ever had a serious problem.....but I've never been charged and seriously threatened by a prairie dog either.

I have had three .223 rifles that was rendered inoperable because the discs from pierced primers caused the firing pins to stick and I had to clean them out before I resumed shooting. Thereafter I kept the ammo in a cooler and had no further problem. In subsequent years I reduced the load by one grain and again had no further problem.

In my mind hot climes can increase pressures.....but only the kind of heat that is seriously magnified by the suns rays.....not by ambient temps. Ammo kept in the pocket is not a problem at 100 degrees.....all it needs is something to keep the sun off the brass.

This issue certainly wouldn't keep me from using a .375 H&H or a .416 Rem Mag in a hot climate.....but I would keep the ammo in a protected place out of the sun and it would be handloaded to something less than "book" max. Both these cartridges have the muscle to do what ever they're pointed at and then some.....and a grain or three less powder don't mean a pinch of shit.....except it just might make extraction a little easier.

How important an issue is this?.....IMO it ranks right up there with the age old arguement of controlled round feed and double rifles VS bolt actions.....you do your job right and the rest of it don't mean shit.

Excuse me now....I'm going out to shoot my bolt action .404 Jeff in controlled round feed.

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