Gary Reeder
Matt, you are not going to like this but here goes anyway.
Saturday, September 01, 2018, 10:30

First, accuracy kills, not speed. Ditch the chrono. All that does is cause headaches. Second, ditch the Barnes bullets and the Barnes manual. In many cases they do not expand and just make a 30 caliber hole going in and coming out and a wounded deer or elk is the result. And the Barnes manual is good only if you live in a Communist state like California where you are forced to use inferior bullets and loads. In my humble experience the Nosler Accubond is the best bullet on the market for deer or elk. You want a good expanding bullet, not a Barnes ice pick. Then look in the reloading manual and find the load for a bullet of the same weight. There are 6 or 7 good reloading manuals out there. I like the Lyman as it gives you more loads, whereas the others only give you loads for their bullets. Look in the manual and pick a load.It doesn't have to be a load for the Accubond, just a bullet of the same weight and configuration. Start with the medium range and load 3. See how they shoot and go up half a grain. Keep going up until you get the group that is the best. Pressure signs are easy to see. Your primer will crater and have sharp edges around the indentation from the firing pin. You will also see a shiny spot on the rim where the case has slammed back against the ejector. And finally look for a bulge at the base of the case. A good load will just give you a slight bulge, almost not noticeable, usually around .002. A bulge over .006 is a ruined case.

Also forget the stated velocities of longer ranges. Those are just guesses. Up here at 8000 feet where the air is clear a bullet will be 250 fps faster than in south Texas or Alabama due to denser air. So while you are ditching things, ditch those scales that tell you what the bullet is doing way out there.
So there you go. Easy as pie.