Bonaventure and Mark... I agree with your opinions regarding manuals. For most reference work, I use the Hornady 3rd edition. It satifies most of my needs due to the older powders that I use and have an abundance of, primarily 4320, 4350 and 4831. I've misplaced some really old Lyman and Lee manuals, and their starting loads always seemed to be in line with the higher loads of even the older Hornady manuals.
With that said, I've achieved performances from smaller pistol calibers unachievable, say even 15 years ago. And I don't believe most are even published in modern manuals... for example, last winter I played with one of my favourite handguns... a 32 s&w Police Regulation (mod 30, I believe.) I discovered online a load using 85gr XTP Hornady bullets being propelled with LilGun powder. I'm not done with it yet, but I've almost have double the energy without any signs of excessive pressures... yet!
Previous achievable load: 92gr RN (non-jacketed) moving at 700fps (100ftlbs)
My load thus far: 85gr XTP, ?gr LilGun moving at 1000fps (189ftlbs)
Shooting into ballistic gell also looks pretty encouraging.