If I remember correctly, I started loading at the minimum and when I shot it, it felt really weak compared to the factory ammo I had shot, so I went ahead and maxed it and it seemed about the same power as the factory ammo.
I also used this site as a reference. It seemed like a lot of people, using the same powder and similar bullets, were using much higher gains that I were and they said it worked fine, so I figured I was safe at 5.6. I never even tried to find this "sweet spot" you speak of. Maybe I should go back and do that?
http://forums.1911forum.com/showthread.php?t=255286
The "sweet spot" thing is more applicable to rifles than to handguns. Supreme accuracy is more apparent ar rifle distances than at handgun distances. Which are you loading for? (When I posted my earlier answer you had not provided the clue of the 1911forum link.)
Finding the sweet spot for a rifle involves some experimentation and sorting out barrel harmonics (also known as "barrel whip") other esoterica that is, frankly, beyond me. But truly worth it when you find a load that turns your 2" 100 yard groups into half-inch groups.
I forgot one point about why people often shy away from the maximum load. Powders burn at a rate that depends on the pressure. Outside that range, they (may) burn erratically. In most firearms and for most powders, the optimal, most uniformly burning pressure will be found between the high and low extremes. Consult the science of "Internal Ballistics" for more detail.
For that reason, many (not all, by any means, but at least some), if they find the bullet velocity that is most accurate in their barrel and discover that it is at the high end of the powder charge range, will switch to a powder that delivers that velocity closer to the middle of the charge range and search for the sweet spot with that charge weight.
For handguns, the reasoning is probably more for safety, and this applies to rifles as well. A slight overcharge (it happens) if you are already at pressures approaching the limits of safety is more dangerous than a slight overcharge if you are in the middle pressures.
In closing, the search for the perfect load is like tuning anything. Arranging the perfectly composed photograph or flower arrangement. Tuning dual SU carburetors so finely that you can balance a nickle on a 4-cylinder engine idling at 300 rpm. I was not able to do that last one, by the way, but the search for it was reward enough. If you can understand the quest for the impossible, you owe it to yourself to try doing it, if not with your firearms, with
something.
Lost Sheep