Good reloading manual for complete n00b.

rdelliott

rdelliott

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Hiding in Honduras. I'm a desperate man.
I've been planning to get into reloading for a while, but sticker shock over the price of .308 Win has pushed me over the edge.

Can anybody recommend a good reloading manual that will tell a complete reloading newbie how to get started in clear, simple, easily understood words of few syllables, with lots of clear illustrations :).

I intend to start by reloading .308 Win and 12-ga. to start, and possibly .45 ACP and 7.62X39 in future.

Thanks!
 
My first manual was Lyman, there is good descriptions and methods in it that I found very helpful but the loading data sucks. I've found that it's a good idea to eventually accumulate as many manuals as possible as they'll all tell you something different and the authors seem to specifically promote their own interests and brand of equipment. I like the Hornady and Hodgdon manuals the best, Lee, Speer and Nosler are o.k., but I think everyone will have they're prefured publishers. I was fortunate that I found someone to mentor me for almost a year in reloading and I would highly recomend doing the same if you can find someone.
 
I started off with a book called "The ABC's of reloading". It doesn't have load data, but it gives a lot of info about the basics, basic operations, and also goes into more advanced things like casting bullets.

I would think that once you have read this book, any reputable manual would work well.
 
Wendell said:
The best first manual is MODERN RELOADING. You will want to read more than one manual, but the first one definitely should be Richard Lee's.
http://www.leeprecision.com/cgi/catalog/browse.cgi?1195586701.971=/html/catalog/bookpg.html

You may get it from Higginson Powder
http://www.higginsonpowders.com/

Or directly from Lee Precision
http://www.leeprecision.com/
Click to expand...

Just finished reading this, good read . If you approach it as also a history of reloading equipment and the industry, you will like it better than if you are looking for purely technical.
 
i highly reccomend the LEE Anniversary kit that even comes with the LEE load manual Vol.2.... you get some decent equipment including a powder scale, press, powder thrower, shell holders, priming tool etc..... add a case length gauge some dies and a caliper and your pretty much set.... and in the future you can always upgrade to a proggresive press and keep the single stage for primeing or sizeing brass...

i dont personally see the need to reload 12ga shell's as last i looked i could get 250rnd cases for $60 but if you load slug's and cast your own then you might come out ahead.... i can hardly reload .303B with free brass for what i can buy remmington shot shell's for.

reloading is alot of fun and not nearly as scary as some would have you believe as long as you start slow and work your way up.... learn to read your scale properly and watch thing's like the overall length of your cases and maximum charges seldom yeild maximum accuracy and you will do just fine.

you can have all of your equipment and enough powder primer's and bullets to load 100rnd's for under $250.... well under if you shop around a bit.
 
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