True, and none of us, including him, have the sophisticated pressure measuring equipment that the various manual publishers have available to them to test our handloads in our individual guns. Published loads are almost always going to generate less than max pressures because most of them are worked up in min spec. test barrels, while the specs in factory rifles tend to be toward the max side. I think that you, and Bob Hagel, are giving out dangerous advice, because unless he's got a strain gauge or pressure barrel cut to similar dimensions of his rifles barrel, he may very well be over max and never even know it. Primer cratering or flattening is NOT necessarily an accurace indicator of pressure, and by the time he see's primer pocket expansion, gas blowby, head separation or case rupture, he's already gone WAY beyond the max. Pressure limits and cases are designed with some pressure tolerance in mind.

And as I pointed out before, loading over max in a fools errand. The 100-150fps or so you might gain by going 3-5 grains over max isn't worth the danger to oneself or others created by doing so. With reloading, a wise person will always err on the side of caution. If he needs the extra velocity beyond what his .270 can safely do, then it's time he considers a new rifle with a cartridge DESIGNED to produce those higher velocities safely.

Mike