Reloading manual recommendations

Crazy Chaingun

Crazy Chaingun

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Hello all,

I'm hoping to start reloading my own ammo this year.
Apparently I should buy a reloading manual or two before I purchase equipment.
What would you recommend for a beginner?

I'm planning on loading 30-06, 25-06, 30-30 and maybe 9mm.
I don't know if that makes a difference in what book I get, but I thought I'd mention it.

Thanks
 
Lyman 49th has a lot of different techniques, data for different bullets, not brand specific. If you buy a Lee press kit, you should get a Lee book included in it, RCBS kits have Speer books. Nosler is on line and has books, so is Barnes. Powder mfgrs info are all available online.
Hornady,Sierra are only available in book form. If you pick a bullet, get that mfgr's data, especially for monometals such as TSX/TTSX and E-tips and the like. Just remember they are guides, start at the lower charges and work your way up. Your gun is different than theirs, and can respond very differently, or similarly to theirs, won't know til you shoot it. If they don't list a powder with a certain bullet, there is usually a reason, sometimes one involving safety, sometimes they just didn't try it.
 
i've never read it, but i always see the ABC's of reloading being recommended. i have the lymans 49th edition.
 
Thanks for the feedback so far everyone, this forum rocks.

While we're on the subject, I just saw the RCBS Rockchucker kit on the Prophet River site.
Does anyone know how good these are?
 
Crazy Chaingun said:
Thanks for the feedback so far everyone, this forum rocks.

While we're on the subject, I just saw the RCBS Rockchucker kit on the Prophet River site.
Does anyone know how good these are?
Click to expand...

A great starter kit and if they are still $300 you can't get them any cheaper than that even in the US. My first press was a Rockchucker that I bought in the mid 80's and I still use it for all my rifle & large calibre pistol reloading. You will need to buy a few extra things like a good powder measure stand, dies, shellholder, case trimmer, etc. but it has most of what you need.
 
My Rockchucker's kids are old enough to vote - still producing good ammo. Good press and you won't get a better price.

As to the book, The ABCs of Reloading is an excellent introduction and will answer a lot of questions before you even know you have them. Highly recommended but it's not really a reloading manual in that it has relatively few 'recipes'.

As to which manual, I think a lot of it is like cars or beer - you'll hear people say that this is better than that and that that other always makes junk. In reality, I think all of the major company manuals are reliable and much depends on personal taste. I have Lyman's 49th edition and it's very good, but I have a bunch of others by different companies as well. Lyman's was my most recent purchase, but I try to get a new one every few years and get a different one each time.

I agree in particular with 209Jones about starting low and working your way up, looking all the while for signs of pressure (which the manuals and ABCs will explain). Until you learn what you are doing, I would take no info off the internet (manufacturers' websites excluded), especially YouTube. There are a lot of smart, solid people out there with good advice, but there are also a lot of really dangerous idiots who are only alive because Law of Averges has yet to catch up with them. Until you get a feel for it, you won't be able to tell them apart.
 
If you check the websites of the various powder makers, most have reloading data available for the majority of calibers using their powders
 
I'm a bit insane but I just decided to buy any manufacturer's whose bullets I was interested in trying out. Started with the Lyman's 49th edition and I found that all the info on the techniques of reloading are GREAT in this book for the new reloader. Being a real new guy, and I'm not shooting cast bullets, I'm more comfortable with specific data from bullet manufacturers. So I picked up a Hornady, Nosler and Barnes. I'm going to try all of their bullets.

Am I insane.. probably. I was not able to find all the data I wanted for a particular Barnes or Nosler bullet on the website. Maybe I am not looking at the right place but what I find is they list one or two powders only on the web. The books have the whole list.
 
The websites don't have all the powders on them or they don't have all the bullets listed with their powders. You cannot substitute one bullet for another without the proper data. Example, a 308 Sako loaded with Sierra Game Kings had Nosler Partitions of the same weight substituted without a corresponding drop in powder charge. The result was an automatic depriming 308 with a self-removing extractor. Don't do this.

My recommendation is to buy the current manual for all the bullet manufacturers you may use (likely Nosler, Barnes, Speer and Sierra) and then buy the Hodgdon manual and go from there. You may eventually want to add Swift and Vihtavuori but those five will get you well started. I also buy every updated manual and keep my old ones. I have Ken Waters' book Pet Loads which gives an interesting historical perspective as well as many good loads that are still as good today as they were in the 60s and 70's.
 
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