KegCommando
Member
- Joined
- Aug 29, 2008
- Messages
- 179
As some of you may recall from another thread, I was looking for a newer more up to date load book since my original 15 year old one.
I was prompted to do this when I recently started loading .380 and accidently purchased some 88gr bullets and my book had no data for it, and neither did Hodgen's website.
I was going to order one blind online, but decided against it and finally had the time to another bookstore (second time this week).
The store had 3 choices:
Hornady 7th ed
Some Sierra binder I think was 5th ed Rifle and handgun
Lyman Pistol & Rifle 3rd ed.
When I leafed thru the books, I am just totally amazed that after all these years, the amount of published loads is miniscule.
Since I was mostly interested in finding something to fill my .380 gap, I started looking there first. One of the books was so pathetic It only listed 90gr and 95gr FMJ's, and only a couple powders at that. The other two only faired a little better.
I then took a look at the 9mm sections and figured those would be pages. Indeed those were better, but still seemed pretty lacking to me.
Granted these books have tons of loads for calibers I'll ever use, let alone heard of, I am still pretty surprised that with all the different manufacturers and bullets, there isn't more load data available. It's kinda annoying to go shopping, "Let's see I have these bullets, oh I gotta use one of these powders" or "I have these powders, I can only use these bullets"
Just for the record, I got the Lyman book since it had the most .380 data, and the 9mm section looked at least as good as the other two, if not better. I reckon when I start .45's I'll have to go look for the best book for that too.
I was prompted to do this when I recently started loading .380 and accidently purchased some 88gr bullets and my book had no data for it, and neither did Hodgen's website.
I was going to order one blind online, but decided against it and finally had the time to another bookstore (second time this week).
The store had 3 choices:
Hornady 7th ed
Some Sierra binder I think was 5th ed Rifle and handgun
Lyman Pistol & Rifle 3rd ed.
When I leafed thru the books, I am just totally amazed that after all these years, the amount of published loads is miniscule.
Since I was mostly interested in finding something to fill my .380 gap, I started looking there first. One of the books was so pathetic It only listed 90gr and 95gr FMJ's, and only a couple powders at that. The other two only faired a little better.
I then took a look at the 9mm sections and figured those would be pages. Indeed those were better, but still seemed pretty lacking to me.
Granted these books have tons of loads for calibers I'll ever use, let alone heard of, I am still pretty surprised that with all the different manufacturers and bullets, there isn't more load data available. It's kinda annoying to go shopping, "Let's see I have these bullets, oh I gotta use one of these powders" or "I have these powders, I can only use these bullets"
Just for the record, I got the Lyman book since it had the most .380 data, and the 9mm section looked at least as good as the other two, if not better. I reckon when I start .45's I'll have to go look for the best book for that too.