Based on a novel hybrid rotary table, the load carrying property was analyzed theoretically and experimentally, and an optimization model of geometric parameters of the spiral groove with the objective function of hydrodynamic load carrying capacity was proposed. For starters, the geometric model of the friction pair was established and the governing equation was solved numerically to obtain the pressure distribution and lubrication performance. Experiments were also carried out to verify the validity of the simulation. The hydrodynamic load carrying capacity was set as the objective function and spiral angle, wedge depth and wedge number were determined as design variables after analyzing the influence of wedge geometric parameters on the objective function to establish the optimization model. In order to seek the optimum combination of these three variables, Cuckoo Search was applied to solve the optimization model and the law of the optimal solution under various working conditions was obtained. Through comparison with optimized performance from the original performance, dynamic performance of the optimized rotary table was found to be improved, which proved the reliability of the optimization method.