Since I just went down a similar road as a newbie to this lead bullets in bottleneck cartridge foolishness, I'll share my process. First, guys at the club who tend to place well in the club matches were consulted. I took that info and took a look at the Lyman book for more background details. The boys at the club helped me select a bullet and a powder, the Saeco 315 and 2400. I get the bullet from Meisters. I also perused this site for info and asked a few questions. Armed with that info and my bullet, I loaded up 5 test rounds each for various powder charges that would shoot in the 1600 fps range. Loads were in 0.5 gr increments. Went to the range with my chrono and shot them at 100 yds for grouping and velocity check. I found one, 18gr. that was the most consistent. Guys at the club said 17.5 gr worked well for them. So, very close to their findings.
Slugged my barrel and did a chamber cast (yeah, should have done that before) and found my bore was .312. So, bumped up my sizing die to .312 from .311 and have been shooting that load, since. I did alter the OAL of the loaded cartridge after the test session and my first match with the rifle. But I have not put any on paper since doing that. Scores in subsequent matches indicate it was a good choice. Basic rule with the top shooters at the club is make the round as long as possible and will still function in the magazine. I settled on 3.130".
Although the rifle is shooting well, I need to revisit group size on paper when the light is steady and the wind is nil to remove external variables and get a better feel for what the rifle can do, if I do my job.
As a sidenote, several of the recoil sensitive shooters at the club are using light loads of Unique in their loads. Not sure if anyone is using it in .30-06, but they are using it in .30-30. Some are so light that the report out of the guns is more of a pop, like a gallery .22. Yet they are still reaching out to 500 yds with them. Many shoot offhand so not possible to truly assess the accuracy of their loads.