Reloading Manuals

[John O.]

What manuals would you recomend to a beginner? I have a Speer number eleven reloading manual. Thanks for the help.

 

[ShootDots]

What manuals would you recomend to a beginner? I have a Speer number eleven reloading manual. Thanks for the help.

I like the Hodgdon manuals. 1.) many cartridges, including, what may be considered still wildcats; 2.) most importantly, it gives the pressure in either C.U.P. or P.S.I. and you can compare powders etc.. with that sort of info; 3.) they use a large selection of bullet weights in each caliber / cartridge range..

 

[Ledd Slinger]

Speer is a good manual. If you follow the reloading instructions in the beginning of the Speer manual, you'll do just fine.

Nosler manuals are also good because they test a wide variety of powders with all the cartridges.

A must have IMO is the Hogdon magazine loading manual. It always has info on the latest and greatest cartridges and powders because it is updated yearly.

Other than that, I might recommend any books and publications by Brian Litz if you really want to understand the finer details of whats going on with bullets in flight.

Good luck

 

[John O.]

After I get to reloading I can litterally make my own luck.

Thank you.

 

[Ledd Slinger]

After I get to reloading I can litterally make my own luck.

Sometimes...Just depends on what you consider "accurate" for a particular firearm's application.

 

[John O.]

Touche. After I have made utlitarian rounds I will try to see how much accuracy I can wring out of my rifle and myself.

 

[CJ6]

Nosler gives "fill %"and "best load" per powder (for what ever that's worth), Hornady and Sierra both have quite a few uncommon calibers in their books along with the "standards" with a bit more data on SS pistol rounds (XP's , T/C etc.) Hodgdon is best to go to their web site and download the data for whatever cartridges you want and put that in a 3-ring binder (way more data on the web pages than in their annual manual) and they also have data for IMR/Win etc. Lapua's manual is pretty limited as is VV. Bergers goes up to 30 cal as top caliber ,but it has a few "wildcats" in it also. Lees has quite a bit of everything in it including reduced loads. Lymans I don't have so I can't say on that.

 

[Dgd6mm]

I primarily use Hodgdon, Lee manuals and have others. I use QL mostly anymore, put that is a $150.00+ computer program and a few of the most current powders are not on an update yet.

 

[jonbearman]

To be honest you can never have enough reloading manuals related to the bullets you are shooting.

 

[Tommie]

To be honest you can never have enough reloading manuals related to the bullets you are shooting.

Agreed. Each manual has strengths and weaknesses. Many times I've had an "Aha" moment when comparing notes between different publications.

If nothing else, reloading manuals are a good read.

 

[Berger.Fan222]

Pick any four. Read the front matter in every one of them, and read the cartridge specific info in all four for any cartridge you want to load for.

A month in the lab can save an hour in the library.

 

[Gary in MD]

I try to keep most of the current ones on hand.
Nosler, Sierra, Hornady, Hodgdon, Lyman... They are all very informative.
I usually pick up a reloading manual when I'm looking for something to read rather then the newspaper.....
Gary

 

[John O.]

I do understand the need to stay up to date on the improvements. However since I will be operating on a tight budget for now. About how often should you look to getting the information that you have now refreshed? I am thinking about every five years, assuming that my wallet remains mostly empty that long.

 

[Ledd Slinger]

If you have the Speer manual, you're good to go. I used that manual alone for about quite a while when i first started reloading. There is so much data online nowadays. DIdnt have all these websites amd forums back when i started. Manuals are really almost becoming obsolete. You can go to many of the powder and bullet manufacturers web sites and find data for specific cartridges. Just print the data out and off you go.

 

[Toolbreaker]

I personally like the Lee manual. Lee looks to have compiled the info from various powder and bullet manufacturers into one volume. The only rub is, the bullet manufacturers aren't listed by name. Reading between the lines seems to sort most of this out, though. Another nice feature of the Lee manual is that there is a constant given at the end of several of the loads to figure velocity and pressure estimates for less-than-max charges. I've ran a few of the velocity equations per charge weights, and they seem to be relatively close across my chronograph.

 

[Falkwa]

i enjoy my hornady, nosler, and lyman myself

 

[John O.]

Thanks for all the information.

 

[Tommie]

I's guess my 20 year old Hodgdon book is my usual go-to manual. My only gripe is that competitors's powders never reach the max velocity listed for the Hodgdon powders. But hey, at least Hodgdon saw fit to include several brands if powder.

Hornady makes a great manual but I'm not a huge fan of the velocity "slots" (as apposed to actual velocity). And of course they only list their own bullets. But that's typical of manuals published by bullet manufacturers.

Lee and Lyman do a good job as well. Some of the Lyman loads look pretty salty to me.

As I previously posted, each manual has its strong points and much can be learned by comparing notes between them.

 

[Webster]

I don't know if updates are really needed. Many of the powders have been around since the 1950s. The bullet and powder manufactures have a lot of free data online. I have 4 manuals. The data doesn't change based on dates. New bullets and powders come out. You should be safe with any manual as long as your referencing the proper bullet weight, caliber, powder, charge weight and you are starting 10% below the max listed charge and working up in small increments. You must know the signs of pressure. I always end up shooting about 1 grain under the published max. on my varmint hunting 6BR. It's not worth pushing the limit. IMO the recommended accuracy loads are worthless in most cases. Every gun has it's preferences. Pick a bullet weight and type (hunting, varmint, competition) and a powder that is recommended on this website for your cartridge and give it a try. Custom comp actions are stronger than factory ones. The most important thing is to be safe. I cringe when I see people trying to shoot just below the point they are damaging the brass. If you are shooting GH under 350 yards another 100 fps is not important.