Load Manual

[bikerbeans]

Hi All,

Getting ready to purchase a new reloading manual.  I load straight wall pistol cartridges and 45 70, 223, 22-250 & 30-06 with no plans to buy more dies.  Any thoughts on the best manual to buy?  I load both cast & jacketed in the 45 70 and the pistol cartridges.  Other rifles only jacketed.

thanks

BB

[sprest22]

The Lee modern reloading manual is a good one lots of data for jacketed and cast.It is data from all the other manuals put into one  and has good info on loading techniques.I also like the speer manual because I have found it to give the most realistic velocities.The Hodgdon annual manual is also a nice and cheap reference and the Lyman manual is great for cast data.For the most data at the lowest price I would go with the LEE if your only buying one manual.

[Graybeard]

Lyman, it has the most cast bullet data of them all and uses bullets and powders from all the various makers as they don't make either bullets or powder. The Lee is nothing but extracts from other manuals they don't shoot any of their own data just copy from those who do.

[lrrice]

I started out with a hornady book and have been quite happy with it.  Now I just buy those single cartridge books for each cartridge because they're cheap and have almost every imaginable published load in them.  Plus, many of the powder and bullet mfrs. have free online reloading data.

[necchi]

Lyman, it has the most cast bullet data of them all

+1, for the cast data and a spread of jacketed bullet weights and makers.

 Those single cal books are ok, but the data is somewhat dated, and ya they'er cheap at $8-9, but if ya need  4 or >, it add's up fast.
 It's tuff, there really is no best book to get, their all specific to their own stuff.

[huntducks]

Buy the latest Lyman book it will have all kinds of cast bullet load in it beside a bunch of jacked bullets I have the 47th edition and I open it first.

[Dand]

I like to have several manuals. My first go to books are Speer and Lyman but I have one of nearly every brand out there and consult them all. Maybe that's overboard but I find them helpful. I keep the old powder Mfg pamphlets and sometimes print out newer info from their sites. I haven't gotten the Hornady #7 as it didn't get great reviews.

[Dezynco]

I have several including the Lyman, Lee, and the caliber-specific books.

I also suscribe to www.loaddata.com, tons of information on that web sight, though much of the data is copied from other sources.  However, they tend to stay on top of new data, and publish it as soon as they get it.  I'm not trying to advertise for them, just thought you might want to look around over on their websight.

[OLDHandgunner]

If you want th biggest bang for your buck, I'd go with the Lyman 49th. It is loaded with alot of great info for jacketed and cast bullets in most calibers. After 40+ years of reloading and almost every loading book out there in my library, the Lyman is still my go to loading manual. What I was impressed with in the 49th edition was it had loading data for my 22K-Hornet.
This should be the manual for the first time reloader because it is packeted full of great reloading info on the how's & why's of reloading. Along with good info on powders, primers & bullets.

[bikerbeans]

thanks everyone for your input.  Looks like the Lyman manual is leading the pack.  I will head over to the local gun shop this week and see if they have one in stock.

My only manual I have used to date is one I put together from information from the various powder and bullet manufacturers and from every online source I can find that will let me download and print for free.  Basically I have researched online each new caliber before I start loading.  This probably not the best way to start reloading but I didn't know any handloaders when I started about a year ago.  Now that I have found GBO I am learning better ways to do things, hence a manual.

thanks again

BB

[Lloyd Smale]

my favorites are the old hogdon hard cover manuals with the binder rings. They cover more cartidges and have data for most brands of powders.Siera is great if you can find the two book set of rifle and handgun as they cover alot of differnt rounds and powders.  Hornady is another pretty good manual. Keep in mind no matter which one you buy theres probably going to be cartidges not covered by that manual and its a good idea to have at least two anyway to compare loads

[P.A. Myers]

No shooters library is complete without a copy of 'Cartriges of the World' by F.C. Barnes. Not a loading manual, it is a great read and gives you great insight as to the history of what we are shooting today.
I confirm all my loadings on line, handloads.com or M.D.Smith. I find most manuals don't have data on enough different bullets or powders. There are a lot of different components available now [or out of stock]. A potential combination may be hard to find in a single source.

This forum is a great source of data and comment.