[T. O'Heir]

"...1600-1700 FPS..." Hi. Those are .357 rifle loads. Anybody who says they're shooting those out of a revolver is nuts.
Max loads on Hodgdon's site don't go over 1591 fps with that particular bullet using H110 or Win 296 out of a revolver. Just happens to have been the 158 grain jacketed they tested.
7.7 grains of Unique max revolver loads for a 158 grain jacketed bullet gives 1040 fps. Max Blue Dot loads are about 110 fps faster.
"...is the starting load just enough to avoid a squib and the max load is just under what makes a nice kb?..." Nope. Both are tested loads that are safe and within SAAMI(Sporting Arms and Ammunition Manufacturers' Institute) pressure specs. Max loads are far under anything that would cause a catastrophic failure.
The manuals(read your's) only give the starting load and the max load. Mind you, some sites only give max loads so you have to reduce 'em by 10% and work up.
You work up the load from the starting load and go up by half a grain, loading 5 or 6 of each(for a revolver.) until you get to the max load. Keep 'em separated. A factory box is good for that. Do not go over max loads.
You will find that shooting jacketed bullets regularly gets expensive.