Reloading stuff question .

Kc.338Lp

Kc.338Lp

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I was getting some reloading stuff today , and on the rack were about 4 or 5 reloading manuals . There was a lyman (which i bought) i think its the 49th edition , The hornady manual , speer (which was very expensive about 55.00) , one by nolser , sierra and a few small cast round ones .

Some where wrapped in plastic so i couldnt open but i was wondering , each was priced differently and had to ask IS there any real difference between all these manuals , everybody online has their opinion but there is no real comparison between each manual ..

i just want to make sure i didnt waste my money on the lyman one .

Also with my projectiles , i picked up some lead projectiles and when i opened the box they are completely covered in a blue wax which i assume is lube .

Quick question , i have load data in my lyman for this specific proj. but will this wax interfere with my powder charge ? and can i just clean the lube off the tip of the round afterwards with some rubbing alcohol ?
 
The lead projectiles should not be completely covered in lube. If it is done right the lube should only fill the grooves around the base of the bullet. You may want to try wiping some of the lube off a couple of bullets and see how easy ,or hard, the lube comes off.If there is a whole wack of lube on the bottom of the bullet odds are that some powder is going to stick to this and not burn properly. By the by who made these bullets?
 
The value of the books is the educational amterial in them. I think 2 books is a minimum. I like the Sierra, Speer and Hornady, but have severl others, too.

If you have a new or oddball caliber to load, make sure it is in the books you buy.


Ignore the lube. Just load, shoot; repeat.
 
I got a speer manual with my reload kit and I'm not fussy on it. My friend has a Hornady reloading manual from a few years back and i like it a lot better.

The speer manual however has a lot of good information in the front of it on how to accurize your gun and ammo, good reading, just missing some calibres and bullet weights and types.

I have been using the Hodgdon website for reloading specs. Its the best I have come across yet.
ht tp://data.hodgdon.com/main_menu.asp
 
i got my speer back in 91 ( 11 edition) but now i question the value of having one altogether once you've mastered the techniques and know how to watch for pressure signs- there's so much on the net from both the manufacturers and incidental knowledge - you can basically print off anyting you wish to know- the only time i dust off the manual these days is to ck somebody else's load -the lyman seems to be about the best around, but i've found hornady to be a bit on the light side(very light) from what i've seen on here
 
Lyman is good...I learned alot from the Speer and the Sierra books in the reading and of course load info is good. I agree with 2 minimum, i always consult at least these two books and the hogdon site for a load that I am working on/

As for the lube, just leave it alone for the most part, unless it is dripping wet, which I doubt it is. You can remove from the base or just the nose if you want and mineral spirits or the such would work fine, of course allow to dry well before loading.
 
When it comes to manuals, the rule of thumb is that each bullet manufacturer's manual covers their own product lines very well, but other's mfg's bullets not as thoroughly. So if you really like Speer bullets, get the Speer manual.

Lyman's is an excellent general manual. It is very thorough on reloading technique. It has useful feature articles on various special aspects of reloading. My 48th is a bit light on internal and flight ballistics. Since Lyman is an equipment manufacturer you'll notice their technique pictures use their own brand of gear. I like the fact that Lyman's has loads for a wide variety of bullet manufacturers, as well as a wide variety of cast bullets (from their own molds, of course).

A lot of people also recommend The ABCs of Reloading as being a great theory and technique manual. I've never seen it, but so many folk mention it that it is likely worth your time and money.

With a couple manuals at hand and access to the powder & bullet manufacturer's websites, I'd say you're good to go.
 
t-star said:
i got my speer back in 91 ( 11 edition) but now i question the value of having one altogether once you've mastered the techniques and know how to watch for pressure signs- there's so much on the net from both the manufacturers and incidental knowledge - you can basically print off anyting you wish to know-


I agree. I too, have the Speer #11, I bought it at a garage sale a few years ago. Then I suddenly realized it is the only US loading manual I have ever had! I cut my teeth on the Norma GunBugs Guide, all 25 pages of it. It is amazing how they concentrated so much information on so few pages. I have recently looked it over, to see what I had missed in starting out reloading, including safety information. Everything a person needed to know to get started in safely reloading, is acutally in that little book.
I used all Norma components for the first few years. When I started using other powders I just picked up loading charts, which were at every gun store and distributed by every powder manufacturer.
Also, I kept a lot of notes on each rifle I loaded for. To this day, if I want to load for a rifle that has spent a long time in the corner and I can't rember the exact loads I used to use, (which is rare,) I will look it up in my notes, not a commercial loading book.
Click to expand...
 
actually, i started off with an ideal, then graduated to pacific , and then to a speer- the powders in each case had become outdated; ie the ideal listed ww230, but not 231, that sort of thing-
 
I did look for the abcs of reloading but he didnt have it in stock .. The projectiles in question for the one poster is mec something .. the box is locked away right now dont want to go digging . it was 48.95 for 500 lube and sized so i thought what the hell

180 grain CN BB . i chose the lyman because it was the most cost effective of the 4 for now . and ive read the cast section a few times already and the rest took me a few hours to read thoroughly , i also like that its easy to understand and follow , i didnt spent a whole lot of time scratching my head going wtf.
 
I have four books I think out in the man shop.
The two I frequent are the Hornady (second edition) and a
binder type old Lymans.
Both old books are great.
For my depth on knowledge on reading letters, these two make it easy for me.
And all my old chamberings are in there.
I have a Nosler and a Lee I use for gasket weights.
These are like reading a Stephen King novel.
Rubbish to say the least.
 
The "manual" I miss the most was the little 10-16 page ones that the powder makers (Dupont and Hodgdon are ones I remember) used to distribute for free.
It'd have loads for every safe-possible powder in every cartridge. For instance, it'd list a load for .22 Hornet using H4831 powder!

Other than those, I saw a magazine-format manual from Hornady a few years back that was just about as useful.
 
The Hodgdon manual is very helpful as it lists not only Hodgdon powder, but includes IMR, WW, and Aliant as well.

Another older one is Ken Waters' Pet Loads. It is a bit outdated and does not include some of the modern powders and cartridges, but is an excellent read nonetheless.


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