This is a crude cartoon of how different pointing die inserts will cause the meplats of bullets to look after pointing. I purposely exaggerated the appearance of the pointed bullets. The geometry of the bullet largely dictates which insert is most appropriate; i.e. the caliber, ogive radius, meplat diameter, etc. The insert with the cone of greater height as shown
at right will give a longer and less "steep" point, but it will close the meplat less. The insert with the cone of lesser height as shown
at left will close the meplat more, but give a noticeably "steeper" point. The relative difference between inserts # 0 and # 1 are shown (also greatly exaggerated).
As an example, the # 0 insert appropriate for a 185 Juggernaut (.308) will give points most similar in appearance to those shown above on the
right when used with the 185s, where the point transitions smoothly into the ogive and the meplat will be closed by about 1/2 to 2/3. However, using the #0 point on a .224 90 VLD, which is much thinner and "pointier" than the 185, will give points that have a noticeably more abrupt transition to the ogive, even though the meplat may be closed a little more.
The OPs original question was aimed at how to determine which insert gives the best results with the Berger 200 Hybrids. I do not have the exact specs for the cone dimensions of the various inserts, so I can only go by what I see having tested various bullets with the # 0 and # 1 inserts I have. Visually, I would much prefer to use the insert for a given bullet that closes the meplat by ~1/2-2/3 and gives the smoothest transition to the ogive. Having said that, I can guarantee you that even bullets pointed with an insert that gives a more abrupt transition to the ogive are still much better than unpointed bullets. So there is a fair amount of latitude in which insert gives points that are the most appealing to your eye depending on the specific bullet you're pointing. I generally try to follow Whidden's guidelines, but have experimented a bit with the two inserts I have and occasionally found I like the appearance of the points better when using the insert not recommended for certain bullets. For me it has been mostly trial and error. But as I mentioned above, no matter which insert you use, the results will be an improvement over unpointed bullets. Whether someone could actually shoot the difference between bullets pointed with two different inserts, regardless of how pleasing the appearance of the final products were to the eye, is a question I think would be pretty difficult to answer definitively.
