A 175 SMK loaded to 2.894 in my chamber would be on the Lands for me. My rifle doesn't mind jump after trying numerous OAL's, so i load to 2.82 OAL and that makes magazine feeding smoother too.
Brass affects pressure too, L/C Military is thicker than Commercial and will drive pressures up when using the same load you developed in Commercial brass.
Every Rifle is a little different, Powder lots are different, and Brass is different.
That's why you work up and look for pressure signs.

Mine are at 2.80".

You guys made me go measure my rounds. I measured my chamber/lands with Hornady A-max, Match, and ELD Match 168gr bullets. My measurements were 2.271, 2.279, and 2.279. So I seated the bullets .010" back. That gave me a OAL of 2.95" and 2.96". I don't use the magazine so them being too long doesn't hurt.

Those 2.2__ numbers . . . are those to the ogive?

Good question right there. Snozz....I have to ask why you wouldn't load to a length you can load in a Magazine for your bolt rifle though? Do you Shoot only Benchrest?

Yes. As measured with a Hornady OAL guage, Hornady modified .308 case, Sinclair bullet comparator body & .308 comparator insert. I think I did it right as I took several measurements to get consistent readings.

Yes, so far I'm only shooting benchrest. No time to go shoot anywhere else. Still working on developing loads. I shot about 60 rounds of the A-max. Now I've got 20 of each of the 3 bullets ready, all same powder load. Once I figure out if 1 bullet is better than the others, then I'll look into powder charges. Maybe experiment with lengths too.

Just got a Leupold 45x competition scope so almost ready to go do more science.

I'm also loading at 43.5gr of varget.
I think the primers look fine:


But anyway. I think those look like good groups old11bravo.

Yes, those primers look fine . . . except for the one that blew out.

A single charge weight across three bullet makes as a comparison will only work for that charge weight. Change a tenth or two of grain's and do it again. You may see a different result as to which bullet is better.
I am assuming same bullet weight or close, such as a 175 SMK VS 178 A-max as an example. It's a long process for max accuracy and i'm not the resident expert, but i fooled with loads in the above Bullet weight range for along time before settling on a "Pet" load for any use for accuracy.
I personally lean towards RL-15 as my powder for the above, but Varget produces in my rifle with 43.5 grains.

Oh, and if you are using multiple brands of cases, be sure and do the comparison using only one brand. Then repeat with another and it will likely change the POI and velocity.