manuals and bullets-some beginner questions

andre66

andre66

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If you are using one particular manual then do you have to use that particular brand of bullet that the publisher of the manual makes? I assume the loads are very precise and take into account bullet weight, etc and using bullets from another company can skew the results.
What about people that cast their own bullets, can they cast them to match the dimensions of the bullets in the manuals?
I also would like to know if it is ok to buy older manuals, if i am going to reload a round that has been around for a long time i can use data from an older manual, can't i?
Thanks
Andre
 
With the newer powders that have been developed...I think it would be best to use an up to date book. The info in the book does not necessarily say to use the specific bullet, but rather goes by the weight and if the bullets are cast or jacketed. There is also more testing that has been done to insure safty when firing the combinations.

The 30-30 and 38-55 ammo has been around for 100 years. but upgrades in both powder and bullets make it wiser to use newer books to load them to standards set for the barrel strength.
 
Check fratri's link if you're using Hodgdon or IMR powder.

Notice that, for the same powder and bullet weight, the minimum and maximum powder charges aren't always the same... Some bullets design and construction will cause more friction (thus more pressure) than others, so check that carefully.
 
Manuals

andre66 said:
If you are using one particular manual then do you have to use that particular brand of bullet that the publisher of the manual makes? I assume the loads are very precise and take into account bullet weight, etc and using bullets from another company can skew the results.
What about people that cast their own bullets, can they cast them to match the dimensions of the bullets in the manuals?
I also would like to know if it is ok to buy older manuals, if i am going to reload a round that has been around for a long time i can use data from an older manual, can't i?
Thanks
Andre
Click to expand...

Andrea

if you are planning to use some of the older powders Like H4350 and Winchester 748 you will be just fine with these older manuals. There really is a lot of info on the WWW for reloading data.
Really as a new reloader the newer manuals are some what better for the step by step instructions on how to do things, plus they do include additional information on some of the newer powders.
You don't need to buy them all at one time, but I think you should get either the newest Hornady 7th, or the Newest Nosler #6 as your first one. I like the Sierra manual but it doesn't have info on 204 ruger and some of the other newer cartridges. FS
 
The Lyman manual is my recommendation for a beginner. The new one will be better because it will have more o loads for newer cartridges, like the 300 WSM, etc. The older manuals are handy for comparison - I have about 8 altogether. The new Lyman (49th edition i think?) would be the one i kept if i only could have one.

Also the Hodgdon website has very good information on basic how-to-do-it as well as reloading data. It covers Hodgdon, Winchester, and IMR powders and a variety of bullets.
 
I'm still thinking about reloading and found the Lyman book to be very good at explaining things for beginners. What I also like about the Lyman manual was that unlike my Hornady book which is really good, Lyman doesn't make bullets so they don't only show bullets from one company.
 
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