[Johnny Guest]

- - - At least to a limited extent. Please believe: No flame or disrespect is intended to either view point.

I don't have enough technical background, and certainly not enough instrumentation, to conduct experimental verification or refutation of the old timer's rules of thumb. As stated, there are a huge number of variables, and changing just one or two factors juggles the entire equation. I am therefore uncomfortable with terms such as "EVERY" and "WILL" when referring to rifle and handgun loading. It is easily demonstrated that after a certain point, an increase of powder in a cartridge reaches a point of diminishing returns, as Mal wrote. That pressure rises out of proportion to the benefit gained. But this is is NOT a linear thing, and it is impossible to generalize that with ALL cartridges, an increase of BLANK percent of variable a yields x percent cent change. I do believe there is a good basis for the generalization, though not the specifics.

Best,
Johnny