Lots of people here with lots more experience than I but here is what I do. You serious reloaders will find this boring.

A fair number of new members recently so I thought I might pass on some simplifying techniques.

Calls this advice for the semi serious reloader a few steps back from fanatic.

I try to settle on a few powders for all my needs.

I & H 4350, RL 15, Varget, I & H 4895 are some good all around choices.

I then check a couple of different manuals and start at the lowest minimum and load 1 round each working up in ½ grain increments to the highest of the listed book maximums.

After each shot fired, I check for bolt stickiness, flattened primers, ejector marks or any other anomaly. If I see any signs of pressure prior to getting to the highest book max, I note it and then I drop back 1 full grain and consider this “Safe Max” for that rifle. If there are no signs of pressure then I use the highest book max as Safe Max.

Then starting at 1 grain under Safe Max I load 3 rounds each in .2 grain increments up to Safe Max. This equals 6 different loads.

Starting with a clean barrel, I fire two fouling shots and let the rifle cool.

I then fire the 18 rounds letting the rifle cool between each shot. I have six different targets dots up and I shoot 1 round of each load at its particular target dot (or aiming point) from the light load to the heavy load and then reverse the order so there is uniformity of barrel fouling until I have fired all 18 rounds.

You will usually find a point where the groups tighten up then loosen up. I then use the smallest group as my hunting load.

This in my mind is a little easier than the ladder method at 200 yards because the ladder method assumes a “perfect hold” by the shooter on every shot.

For Barnes I seat 50/1000 of the lands and for everything else 10/1000 off the lands but always with at least 90% of caliber length of the bullet shank excluding the boattail seated in the neck.

I then sight in dead on @ 200 yards. If you don’t have access to a 200 yard range then I would sight in 2 inches high at 100. With most bottle neck cartridges shooting bullets with a BC between .400-.500 and an SD of .25 to .28 and a muzzle velocity between 2650-2850 you will have a 5 inch window between 0 to 230-250 yards and be about 7-9 inches low at 300 yards.

Nothing beats being able to practice at various ranges and knowing the exact characteristics of your load but I find this to be a pretty good all around approach.