Yep, you must work up a load in any rifle! Case in point, my Savage 12 LPV has an extremely efficient (tight) chamber right out of the box from the factory. In .223 Rem.
If I load at the middle of the range in either my Hornady, Lyman or Speer manuals, I consistently get high pressure signs such as cratered primer, pierced primer and flattened headstamps. Talking with several reloaders MUCH more experienced than me, they said back down enough to eliminate those dangerous pressure signs and try it. That rifle takes a full grain UNDER the Minimum recommended charge in two out of my three manuals, and over a chrono the fps is as fast as a normal load.
Goes to show that working up carefully is something you cant skip. Might work 75% of the time, but you will get caught. Could have been holding a hand grenade in another situation like this, just going straight to hot loads.
