Thank you, Dean. That was actually a better explanation that what I was hoping for, and it makes perfect sense. It is, in fact, also what I assumed, but could not have articulated as well as you did.

In a broader sense, then, one must be somewhat educated on certain principals of hand loading and be able to extract guidelines from sources that do not necessarily apply in an absolute and specific manner to your situation, and use sensible reasoning in ones own application. Then pray everything works out.

I can see how certain people have the knowledge and experience to be able to do that. I can also see that I am not there yet. Fortunately, I have no desire at this point to wander all that far from "home." I have done so with some Ackley loads, and that's more than enough for me at this point.

Having a better understanding of all of that, I can also see how some would say hand loading is, in many instances, a combination of art and science.