Best Reloading Manual: Beginner

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MattE93

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I am brand new to reloading, never reloaded a case myself. Though I have a good collection of brass now and have started getting dies. My newest purchase was a WWII S&W revolver in .38 S&W. This being a somewhat pricey round I figured this would be a good time to start reloading. I am going to order a .38 S&W die set, and to make shipping more efficient was going to add a reloading manual to my order. Is there any reloading manual that is better than the rest for someone new to loading?

My options from the store i am buying from are:

- Hornady 10th edition Hanbook of reloading
- Lee Modern reloading 2nd edition
- Lyman 50th edition Reloading handbook
- Speer #15

If it helps I also plan on reloading 8mm Mauser, .303 Brit, and little bit of 7.62x39
 
Knew I wasn’t was going to get this answer, I guess the question is kinda set up for it. The Lee one is a on %60 off so I might get it plus one other. I will most likely eventually by all of them. But for the time being I am planning on mostly reloading .38 S&W with 200 gr SWC and 160 gr LRN.

If you could only have 1 other one with the Lee, what would it be?

rral22 said:
I'm not joking when I say you should own them all.
Click to expand...
 
Thanks guys. I mostly have Lee dies and I’ll be getting the Lee anniversary kit to get me started so I’ll be getting the Lee one which is on a good sale and the Lyman one!
 
The info and details of the reloading itself is the same , you could find a older Lyman and get the goods
for actual recipes , info in the manuals is a guideline only, same as off the intraweb, all testing has to be done in a specific rifle.
Older manuals won't have the latest greatest of newest powders but most reloading truthfully is done with the same old same old like 4350 3031 4895 etc

Keeping good records is the most important step
 
Lyman without question.

The Hornady in my experience provides velocities closest to what I see in real life.

The Sierra manual is also very good especially if you are looking for less common cartridges.

The LEE manuals consist of data collected from many other sources. LEE doesn't to the best of my knowledge develop their own loads unlike other reloading equipment manufacturers such as Lyman.
 
Lee is the least desirable.
Bullet manufacturer that you are loading is the most desirable.
Powder manufacturers have on- line resources.
Collect what you need over time.
 
The Lee kit already contains the Lee manual, no need for a separate purchase. FWIW - The Lee manual has a lengthy preface that describes the reloading process in detail - great resource for a beginner. Otherwise, you can get reloading data online from Hodgdon, and other manufacturers...
 
I have a few manuals, but the Lyman is the one I use almost exclusively. There is also a lot of information available online with the bullet or powder manufacturers that you can access as well. I once had a discontinued bullet that I wasn't sure of how to load, and a quick phone call to Sierra, had me sorted out in a few minutes, and a follow up email with the required recipe.
 
Awesome!

The store I got the .38 die from had Lee book on sale for $15 US and the Lyman for $20 so I ended up buying both! Really looking forward to getting into reloading.
 
If you have an experienced reloader nearby that could show you the ropes, it will help you immensely. When I started out I was fortunate enough to have a couple very knowledgeable fellas help me out. They came over and help me set up the dies in the press and gave me a lot of pointers based on their many decades of experience. I learned more that day from them than I could have read in a year on my own.
 
I have the Lyman (49th and 50th), Hornady (3rd and 8th), Sierra, Berger and Lee.

All have their strengths and shortcomings. The bullet manufacturer's manuals will be specific to their products. The Lyman and Lee include cast bullet data.

For a first reloading manual, I would suggest the Lyman. For your second, maybe your favourite bullet manufacturer's?
 
I just got into reloading and got the Lyman one at the recommendation of others as it is a classic, but I would take a different approach. While it is a good manual, I ended up using Hornady components due to price and local availability, so should have gone with their manual. I ended up scouring the internet for the load data I needed.

Matt
 
There are general bits of wisdom applicable to any calibre and any reloading machine. Pay attention, make sure you don't double-charge or fail to charge, treat primers like the little capsules of specialness they are, wear safety glasses, etc.

Then you want the manual to the particular machine you're using.

Then you need the formula for the particular calibre, bullet, and powder you want to use. That can get a bit tricky because a powder manufacturer's data only includes their own powders, likewise anything from a bullet maker, and you'll probably run into combinations where powder and bullet brands must have the same corporate parent or something, and some data was compiled a long time ago and doesn't have the newest bullets or powders or only covers what they thought would be popular combinations. What was available in the States back then never quite matches what you can get in Canada in 2019. You sometimes have to dig around a bit for reloading data, especially if trying to do something obscure.

Also note that various manufacturers like Hodgdon have data available on the Internet, so it doesn't necessarily have to come out of a book, but be careful which websites you trust. Manufacturers yes, Bubba on some forum no.

For black-powder-era cartridges I'm trying to load with a mild charge, Trail Boss seems to work well since it's a very low-density powder so I can visually confirm my charge even if it's small and way way down a rather long case.
 
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