I've been revisiting some old load data with a 168 bthp in my 308. Versus the COAL listed in virtually all listed manuals, I have to seat the bullet 0.100-0.1005" shorter to get about 8-10 thousandths jump. My current pet load is 178 eld and when I came up with seating depth I simply looked for just barely missing the lands. Again, vs the manual that made it 0.080" shorter and I believe I maybe just touching the lands.

Maybe I've had too much time to think but...
How reasonable is it to have a barrel rechambered or rethroated or (insert appropriate term) so i can have my lands be further out? I have a savage with a shilen barrel and I can send in just the barrel if need be but I have no clue who would do such a task or potential cost.
OR
Is this really not an issue at all and i should just continue to seat bullets really short?

I started having some doubts because I recently had my pet load give "flyers" at a rate it didn't before. That said, recently was the hottest day I've shot in literally years and I was shooting multiple 5 shot groups together.

Are there known manufactures out there that you can get Savage barrels in 308 with a long throat?

I have a Savage 7-08 with a short-throated factory barrel. At first, I was very disappointed that I couldn't seat the bullets longer (my best loads on my other rifles are all longer than "book" length.) After lots of tinkering, I realized that what I had always done was to try to get the ogive close to the lands. If the throat is short, but you are at a 0.008-0.010" jump, Isn't that what you want? Seating shorter will decrease your case capacity slightly, but probably not significantly. Maybe you are over-thinking this.

Unless you’re looking for maximum velocity I think you’re overthinking it. I do not see how it could result in a less accurate load, just possibly a bit slower. This is just my thoughts, I have no experience with shallow throats although David Alan Coe did sing a song about it once.

If you have a load that shoots well (up to your standards), just shoot it If it bothers you get it the throat reamed.

I would just load what the rifle likes and not worry about it

^^This

Way too far from the lands is the far more common problem. So much so, you bring me a factory rifle to load for, and I'm not even going to try and hit lands, because I know I can't, and still fit in the mag. Load yours -.003" from the lands, and tweak your charge if you just have to fiddle with something.

No slight toward you, but lots of handloaders, that only have a few rifles to load for, often just want to keep messing with their load recipe. It's a need to experiment, I think. When you've got a top of the line barrel, and you've put in the effort to make it shoot as good as possible, it is rewarding to see it perform at the highest level. Enjoy your reward and go shoot more.

If you've done all you can for your barrel, and it still is not satisfactory, maybe it is time to buy a Bartlein and have a high quality gunsmith fit it to your action. Then it will shoot as champion barrels shoot. Your loading and shooting skills may have surpassed what your barrel is capable of.

Thanks for the feedback. In general I've been reading alot lately with all the free time, including some detailed articles on shooting. (Btw, I came across a certain article written on the 7-08ai that was very interesting.) Re-doing my first load just reminded me of how far I seat bullets and I couldn't get the idea out of my head.

i was cruising right along with the first 200 rounds out of this load. Then the last 50-60 shot was starting to see "flyers," meaning 4 shots are together and a 5th one is apart from the other cluster making the overall group about 0.8-1.0" at 100 yards. Of course I cherry pick my best 0.5moa group to post here, but usually I can get one group pretty close to 0.5moa at 300 yards and the others consistently at 0.8moa. So fine I figured solidly moa even though it hasn't performed as well as previous so I move onto longer distance. There's a little game I play where I shoot 5 shots prone, back and forth at 400 and 600 yard plates (10" and 8" circles) while dialing for the corrections. The last time I had noticeably more misses than my previous 2 trips doing the same exercise.
After having some trouble there, I choronographed some shots and found the ES and SD were about much higher (about 1.8x) than my sample set from a previous trip.

Again, I over think things ALL the time. So Fireman absolutely no slight taken. I see honest feedback as sanity checks. Maybe it is as simple as the heat. I've never shot this load over about 70 degrees and it was summer like temperature the last time. Maybe I shoot too much and didn't let the barrel cool down. I'm trying to assume my rifle system is still better than I can reload and shoot.

When’s the last time you cleaned the barrel? It may be time.

Yup

Literally right before this range trip. Had some rust issues from a raining shoot before so I even pulled the stock off to clp everything on the outside. Then the standard bore foam and patches.

KR - that measurement is freebore if you’d like to read up on it. I respect that you do a lot of research on your own on stuff.

A lot of gunsmiths buy a 0 freebore reamer then will have a neck reamer they can give any length freebore a customer wants. Lots of different opinions on this one but one thing I can tell you is normally preferred is to have the pressure ring on the bullet above the neck/shoulder junction. Some magazine setups will not allow it and you just do what you have to do...but putting that pressure ring higher eliminates donut issues completely.

I hope you get it figured out. That’s not your problem unless you have a barrel coming loose, check headspace again on a no go or a go with tape on it.