Bnice, and Frank- Thanks for the input. For what it's worth, the cases used in the comparison are, indeed, the ones that came the most nearly to weight as the .30 American. Not the same capacity , but as near as I was likely to have for the work. That said, I have no chronograph to use, but just the bullet impact (give or take the same), and of course the group sizes. So far, with a total of a hundred shots of each, the small ones are doing a little better in the grouping. Shooting on a public range during hunting season isn't helping much, but I have been trying to keep things on the up and up- since my whole point here is to see what I can see. No point in lying to myself- maybe to somebody, but not myself. More to do; heck until the cases are junk I'll keep looking if it seems worthwhile.   
No shooting for a week or two, family stuff for the next while.Thanks fellas.

Dales, thanks for that. I have only made the holes uniform- and they didn't need much at that, since Federal must have gone all out to make these cases. Maybe at some point I'll drill the holes larger when I have tried most other things. That's the rub with only a limited supply. Limited both in scarcity of cases, and funds. I'm used to both conditions.