Powder Manual

Scored this manual from 1987 (in new condition) plus a roll of 50/50 solder from an estate sale for $3. I have a couple of recent abbreviated loading manuals from IMR, etc that are more like big brochures, as well as the excellent electronic manual that Western Powders publish but had no idea powder companies ever published nice hardbound manuals like the bullet companies. When did they stop?

Looks like there's a good bit of educational reading in there just from the short look I've given it so far.

 

Great find!

 

The usual suspects did this until we all were heavy into computers and the net with all its glory. I have several vintage ones. Speer, Sierra loose leaf type, Hodgdon, IMR, Dupont, Ideal, Vihtavuori, Lyman, Lee, etc. They mostly stopped making the hard covered ones in the early 1980's.

 

You can down load some more here at: http://marvinstuart.com/firearm/Manuals/Reloading/Reloading Manuals/
https://www.xxl-reloading.com/Manuals/, they are all over the internet.
I have some of the old hard back manuals in my reloading room. I have found out over the years that I just stick with Lyman's and back it up with the powder companies manual that I'm using, Lyman does their own testing where some of the manuals out there, like Lee's, is just copied from other manuals and you don't know where the testing data came from that they print, if they print any.

 

Nice! I have quite a few of the leaflets the powder companies produced.

 

That’s a great manual. I have one myself, but not in new condition.

 

If y’all who have manuals sitting around getting dusty ever want to be rid of them, IM me and I’ll pay the shipping.

 

I have never seen that manual before, nice find.

I have a bunch of older manuals from Ideal/Lyman, Speer, IMR and a few others too.
I like seeing the older loads and to compare them to today's data. Also, it's a good source of data if you find old powders or if you come across a rifle that shoots a now obsolete cartridge.

 

A great manual for historical research, but proabably should not be used on a daily basis.
• Powder formulations have drifted over the years.
• There has also been a radical change in the cartridge testing process. When that book was published, the only test was a one-time test for maximum chamber pressure done with copper disks. In the late 1990's, all the labs converted over to computers. These took a chamber pressure reading every millionth of a second, and so the whole process of ignition and combustion could be studied. As a result, a lot of loads were revised downward.

All you'll see in a cartridge testing lab these days is computers and a bunch of wires.

 

I will say most loads are not currently updated. Only the newest cartridges have fully updated data... Lyman 51 is almost brand new and 38 is still cup.

 

I have an older Hogdon manual. I use it often.

 

whenever I see an old reloading manual at a gun show I grab it, however when I do a load workup I generally use the numerous websites on the internet thingy. What I do like about the old manuals is many times they'll have powder/bullet combos that are just not available online. When I'm loading a vmax, load data for a Bar TSX or a SFIRE or a SPR SP isn't always so helpful, especially when powder weight ranges are all different.

 

Old manuals are great for shortages where you need to make something you have or can find work.