I start every bullet, regardless of the ogive, at .010" off the lands and from there adjust the powder up.
I have had problems in the past finding accurate loads with Hornady SST's and Berger VLD's. The SST's were the 7mm 154gn and I have not been able to get them to consistently print groups under .75" in two different rifles (a Sendero and 700P). The Bergers were the 7mm 168gn and I shot the whole box (100ct) looking for a accuracy load. That was in the 700P mentioned above. That same 700P will shoot the 150gn Nolser Ballistic Tip into the .2-.3" range with consistency.
It is sometimes harder to find a consistent, accurate load for a secant ogive but I have never seen a scientific theory or proof as to why this is. If this was the case, I guess Weatherby's (with their freebore) wouldn't accurately shoot secant ogive bullets. I don't know this to be fact, just cynical reasoning.
I would imagine someone out there has a Weatherby that can stack A-Max's on top of each other.
I swore off Hornady bullets a few years back. I was tired of buying those red and white boxes and not being able to get the "gilt-edge" accuracy that I was getting with Ballistic Tips. In most of the heavy barrel rifles that I shoot, I usually can get the BT's to shoot in the .2's and .3's, where with A-max's, V-max's and SST's I worked hard to get .4's. I burned alot of powder in my searches.
I recently bought some .30 cal 178gn A-Max's and have been betting good accuracy and groups from them. They are shooting sub .5's at 100yds, and this evening I shot a sub 2.5" group at 500yds with them in my .300WinMag. Not world class but pretty good for my old eyes and stock factory Savage. JohnnyK.
