I have always preferred loading within .005 of the lands, but some of my guns will not let me seat the bullets this close due to magazine limitations. Some of them are less finicky than others about seating depth. My 308 just plain shoots and seating depth has not been a major factor. Long throat and I seat Hornady 168 gr. AMAX's about .140 off the lands due to the magazine. My Remington 700 338 WM wants 225 gr. AB's very close (<.005) to the lands.
For the best accuracy, always use a bullet comparator which measures to the ogive, not the bullet tip. Lead tip bullets will have the most variance in OAL, but all bullets (tipped, hollow point, etc,) will have some variance.
For a good tutorial on seating depth, read the Berger Bullets manual. Try 4 different loads which are adjusted by .030 between each load. One of these should show more accuracy than the others. You can fine tune your seating depth up or down in smaller increments from this preferred seating depth.
Trying to find the best seating depth by making very small (.002) adjustments can be an exercise in futility. If you measure the ogive on many of the bullets you will variations equal or greater than this amount. I tried Nosler LRAB's and found variances up to .008 when I measured about 20 of them.
Good advice right there.i watched a guy on YouTube get his coal for a bolt action rifles. He first slightly seated a bullet in a dud case. Then he chambered the round and the bullet seated it's self to the maximum coal.
