I am no expert on handloading, though I have been able to get all my rifles to shoot at or better than .5 moa.

Personally, I always start just off the lands and search for loads first. I generally start in the middle of the published powder range, shoot 3-4 and then up it .5 grains and shot another 3-4. If a 2 shot group is bad, I move on to the next higher charge without even bothering to fire the 3rd or 4th. Once I get a good group at a specific weight I load 3-4 different loads around that load in .2 grain increments and see if they tighten up. Finally, I play around with different COAL's. I find it easiest to just load a couple dozen or so long, take them to the range and experiment by trying different seating depths. I always use a Lee hand held press for this and without fail I find a good .25 to .50 load.

Well, if this doesn't work, I try a different powder. But I really don't play with seating depth before getting something close to .5 MOA groups.