the most thorough reloading manual ?

I like the Lyman manuals mostly but I also like to use the Hodgdon powders over the IMR powders and a lot of the time Lyman only lists the IMR variant so that bothers me. (H4350 vs IMR4350) I also like the new Hornady manual but being a Hornady manual it only lists Hornady bullets.

I guess it goes back to needing more than 1 manual. lol

You need minimum of three manuals. The most "all around" seems to be Speer. Might not match exact bullet but can match weight and have wide powder selection. The Lyman manuals have a lot of "how to" stuff but as said before, narrow powder selection. Good info if your playing with older out of style calibers. I like the Sierra two book set. One for pistols and other for rifles. In three ring binders so can add the updates along the way although I usually buy the complete set about every two to three generations. If you had those three you would have good start. I just bought the new Hornady manual and it has its pluses. If you can spring for P. O. Ackley's volume 1 and 2 you get more info than most any other but so much is tied to wildcats and obsolete calibers it is not for the guy wanting to knock out pistol rounds on a progressive. But the general knowledge on the how, why of case.design and tricks of the trade are priceless. While Phil Sharpes 1st edition is a collectors classic, the 1937 second edition has more info and really breaks down the theory of ammunition. I have over 50 reloading manuals and sometimes still can't find that one piece of info I need. Just the way it is.

Recommendations in order:
Latest Speer
Latest Lyman
Latest Sierra
Lyman Cast Bullet Handbook
Latest Hornady
One of the Speer manuals from lay 1970's for material dropped along the way
P.O. Ackley volume 1 & 2
As many of the free ones.from powder companies in magazine format.
Any old one on eBay that sells really cheap.

I have Lyman 48, Serria's 50th Anv, Serria V 5th print. Hornady 6th ed, both of lee's books, Speer 13, Speer first ed 1954, Speer 6th & 7 mid 60's , NRA's book of handloading mid "70's", Lyman's pistol and revolver , and I grab the free book from the powder Co. each year, all have real good info in them , this months HandLoader Magazine has a must have list of books, I have most of them , but I cant say I have a favorite , I use a lot of Serria bullets ,so I have that one on my bench the most,
but for old rounds like my 32rem, or new rounds like my 25WSSM , a membership to loaddata.com is a must , there a Wolfe publishing Co, and everything on there web page is printable

I use lots of Hornady bullets, so I went for their manual. I like it. Just read the "how to" parts again last night.

I also like the Lyman manual since it is loaded with info on cast bullets.

I have both a Hornady and a Lyman manual from many years back and the new ones. These are the only manuals I have. I did download a bunch of loads from the bullet companies and powder companies. Good info there too.

I realize a lot of folks recommend several reloading manuals, however I would say one is enough to get started. If you have 3 or 4 in the budget go for it. More is merrier.

I like my Nosler #6 manual best by far, they use the widest array of powders, and give some helpful hints like listing the most accurate powder and charge in their test rifle, I have found that very useful since about 90% of the time those loads work great for me too. My 7mm-08, 30-06, 6.5x55 and 270 WSM all use Nosler "Most accurate" loads (usualy with Serria or Hornady bullets LOL) with absolutely fantastic results.
The new Hornady #9 manual is a waste of money, VERY limited load data for some of my favorite calibers like the 270 WSM (4 powders per bullet weight and they are mostly mismatched medium burn rate not ideal for a magnum cartridge), others are so lawyer proofed that you won't ever get within 100fps of factory ammo with their max loads, not all bullet weights are listed for each caliber (no 208gr A Max listed for 30-06 or 300 WSM for example) and they do not list any modern action loads for the 6.5x55 which really pisses me off, a half ass attempt at a manual in my book, it was so bad I wrote them an e-mail to complain, they just said they would pass my concerns along to the tech department. Love their bullets, hate their manual, go figure.
I should point out though that Nosler does not make any flat nose 375 cal bullets so they do not list any 38-55 or 375 Winchester, but they have good data on 300 Savage, and they are my first stop anytime I am loading any of the Mauser cartridges because unlike most others they do list modern action data.

The Sierra manual has excellent rifle reloading instructions. However their data is limited to Sierra bullets, so no lead bullet data at all, pistol or rifle.
Otherwise the current Lyman manual is always solid with technique and data. Use the powder maker's data as a double check.

I have three:

lyman 49th
Barnes
Hornady

I have the following:

Lee
Speer
Hornady
Lyman (Both the standard manual and the cast bullet handbook).

If I could only keep one I'd probably keep the Lyman standard manual.

No sense in restricting yourself to only one though. The more you have the more likely you can find a working recipe. For example I have some extra AA #9 that I want to get rid of and all I'm wanting to shoot right now is 9mm Luger or .40S&W. The Lee manual is the only one of those that has recipes for that powder in .40S&W.

I no longer buy loading manuals and use the powder manufacturers specs.

The last Sierra manual came with no list of the bc's of any of their bullets. A call to them got me an Excel spreadsheet that you need a magnifying glass to read. Could they have sent me 4 or 5 pages with the data? Probably won't buy any more of their manuals.

Nosler, the last manual came without any data about the .224 52 gr bullet. I thought they quit manufacturing it till I saw it 2 years later in my LGS. I called Nosler and was told to use the 50 gr data. They missed the point, how would anyone know they have a 52 gr bullet for sale?

Hornady. Pretty good book with lots of good info. One problem. Who on earth does their load development? Their wives and mothers? I'm surprised no one complains about squibs using the data.

Lyman. The only manual that has lots of data and isn't afraid to list data for hotter loads. I would buy this again in a heartbeat.

As a matter of course, I buy the manual published by any company whose bullets I use as one resource. At the moment, this includes Berger, Barnes, Hornady, Nosler, Sierra and Speer. I also get the published data from the powder manufacturers whose powder I use. At the moment this includes: Hodgdon's, VihtaVuori, Alliant and downloaded and printed data from Hodgon's on their powders as well as IMR and Winchester. Finally, I have a Lyman, 49th ed. I also have some data from selected websites including AccurateShooter.com and Loaddata.com (both have been helpful).

When I begin developing a load, I'll use at least three sources to begin: one from the bullet maker, one from the powder maker, Lyman's and usually one other. I get very few surprises that way as regards a starting load from one source being above the max load from another.

I have had excellent results starting from the recommended accuracy loads from Nosler (when the recommendation starts at the low end for a given powder) and from the Sierra manual (as long as their recommendation is about 2 gr below their or another source's max load). I'll try several different powders with a given bullet and "stated" velocity, and then work up my rifles' preferred loads for accuracy based on the powder that works best for me in each rifle.

To date, my best results have come from RL15 for .308 Win and .375 H&H, VV N550 for .308 Win and 6.5x55 SE, IMR 4064 and IMR 4895 for .30-06 (target), H4831SC and RL19 for 7mm RM and, for my heavier hunting bullets in .30-06, I've been pretty pleased with both IMR 4350 and H4350. Contrary to some, I've gotten consistently better results with IMR 4895 compared to H4895 in my -06s, especially, my Garands.

Multiple info sources give me additional confidence when I experiment, especially as I try to vary only one thing at a time, be it brass, primers, bullets, powder, seating depth. After 30+ years of hand loading, I feel like a novice very time I start to work on a new load...and that's a big part of the fun in itself.

Today, I'll be having a Winchester M70 EW testing day for my .30-06 and my relatively new 7mm RM. My Win -06 has been one of my main go-to rifles but I want to see if I can get excited to switch to 7mm RM. I'm not sure whether I reload to shoot or shoot to reload...but either way it's terrific!

FH

I have Lee and Lyman but have taken some data from a Nosler and Hornady manuals a few times. The beginning of the Lyman manual is a pretty good how-to when you first get into reloading. It beats reading the Lee manual's constant bias towards Lee products. But when it comes to actual data I find myself using the Lee manual more. The calibers I reload for seem to have more bullet and powder selections in the Lee. The Hornady and Nosler manuals were good for times when I was using a specific bullet from them but I agree with the general consensus that Hornady prints some fairly mild data. I also use data from the websites of powder manufacturers but they tend to be somewhat limited, only useful if they have a powder-bullet combo that you want to load.

I use the Lyman manual and Ken Water's Pet Loads.

JoeD, is that excel spreadsheet in original format? Would like to have that. Can resize all the fonts for.easy viewing and add to bench computer data files.

I've decided I need a couple more. I have the latest Lee and Lyman's, but each has its faults, such as ignoring common bullets and powders. I mean, mention H4895 but not IMR4895? Come on.....

Ken Water's Pet Loads.

Click to expand...

Pet Loads has some mis-information in it using todays pressure measuring system.

Or even Kens pressure measurement system.

Beware the .22 Hornet stuff especially!

rc

Sierra has much info (only one I have with 400 CorBon, I think) but I hate the three ring binder format. Speer is usually the first one I reach for, followed by Hornadynand then Sierra.

Had to use my Nosler book the other day: only one with 375 Ruger data.

I don't load any of the rounds the OP mentioned however I have the following:

Lee 2nd Ed
Lyman 49th Ed.
Lyman Cast Bullet
Lyman Black Powder
Hornady 9th
Laser Cast Reloading manual
The Complete Reloading Manuals for the 9mm, 45 ACP, 45 Colt and 45-70 which I still love all of them.
I also have a bunch of old and new yearly pamphlets put out by the various powder and bullet makers.

Now my favorites depend at the moment of which one has the information of powder/bullet combination I'm looking for. Most used is probably the Lyman Cast Bullet Handbook since I load mostly cast bullets in all of my guns.
.

I have the Lyman 49 and their Cast Bullet Handbook, Speer 14, and Lee's 2nd, along with Gun Guides popular pistol loads.

If I only had one it would be the Lee. The Lyman has about a fourth of the load data, same with Speer, and they all do their share of trumpeting their own horn. It doesn't matter if Lee copies the load data from the powder manufacturers, the fact is it's in there and it is not 'bad' data.