The ammo makers try to stick to a honey load, but it doesn't work for every gun equally. Rifle have different harmonics for heavy barrels verses light barrels, long barrels, short barrels, bedded receivers, and new barrel verses old and worn barrels.
From over 40 years of loading, I find the honey spot is somewhere between the 60 to 80% max load for accuracy. Just because its faster does not mean it shoots better. I start my ladder loads at 50% and up.
If you want to make a post looking for the best load for your rifle, make an inquiry with what model rifle you own and what barrel length you have, and anything that makes your rifle different. Someone here has the same rifle and has already done the work and test shooting.
My opinions and your opinions are certainly different! My number one opinion on such matters is a good barrel, with the action and barrel properly bedded, will shoot any good ammunition very well. Some rifles, such as many Tikka's are designed to shoot best with a floating barrel, but probably the majority of sporting rifles out there shoot best with pressure under the barrel at the front of the stock. This greatly reduces the vibrations caused by the bullet going down the barrel, thus doing away with much of those, often mythical, nodes and such that people on here talk about that they are often searching for.
With any new to me rifle I acquire I sight it to be on the paper at 100, then get the best, most solid bench type rest I can get and fire five shots, one after the other, so the barrel heats up. I don't even take the time to spot my shots, because I want the barrel to heat up.
In a great many cases the pattern will string, maybe due north, or SW or NE, as the barrel heats up. Any stringy is a sign of the barrel receiving uneven pressure. Next step is to free float the barrel by sanding out the wood where it was hitting and try the same five shot, hot barrel test.
The stringing now may end, but the group is likely considerably larger than we want, as the barrel heats, so next step is to put a temporary block, maybe even thicker paper folded, until when placed under the barrel and the action screws tightened back up, it will take quite a pressure, like maybe six pounds on a spring scale, to move the barrel off the temporary block. When the block is adjusted for the best groups we can get, a permanent block will be put in and away you go to shoot.
This whole thing I am talking about I learned from good, old time competitive rifle shooters and it is exactly the procedure that was used by the world class benchrest shooters of yester-year.
The old time benchrest shooters of years gone by also loaded their rifles to above normal pressure, even for 100 yard shooting. I know this, because it is in a book written by a bench rest shooter who won the National Match Championship nine different years and who is often referred to as the worlds greatest rifleman, ever, Warren Page.
Thus, when I load for accuracy, my loads are loaded to the top of what the rifle will comfortably handle, whether it is above what is listed in the manuals as "maximum" loads, or not. Like what is stated in a previous thread, I load until there is a touch of the bolt sticking, then I slack off a half gain or so.
