What all loading manuals do you have in book form?

[Dr. Tad Hussein Winslow]

See poll.

Also, which one do you like best and why?

 

[Hairballusmaximus]

I prefer the Lyman Cast handbook, but thats because I mainly shoot cast. I find myself referencing all of them fairly often. I also use a lot of mfg co. load data. I have booklets from Winchester, Hogdon, Accurate etc that come real handy.

I have not picked it up yet, but the Lee book seems like a real good book because they include data for almost all powder and bullet mfg co.

Hairball

 

[Peter M. Eick]

I have now 24 linear feet of various loading manuals dating back to the 30's. It would be hard to name them all.

I use my seirra manuals most often though since I load a lot of seirra bullets. Otherwise for the revolvers I use a bunch of manuals.

 

[rfwobbly]

I like the Lyman becasue it covers all the component manufacturers. Tied for a close second is Sierra and Hornady. Speer I like, but use the least simply becasue it only covers Speer bullets.

 

[Walkalong]

Speer. Hodgdon. Hornady, RCBS, and these Handloader Bullet Making Annual's. They were indispensable back when there was no internet forums to gleen info from. It was just getting started, as we know it now, at the time.

 

[Ben Shepherd]

Ha! I got to check them all. Don't really have a favorite, but the hornady and lyman manuals have a lot of stuff in there other than pure data that I find very useful.

 

[MCMXI]

Here are mine in chronological order.

Speer #11 - bought in '92.
Sierra 50th Anniversary Edition - bought in '95
Lee 2nd Edition - bought last year.
Lyman 49th Edition - bought late last year.
Loadbooks "The Complete Reloading Manual for the .308 Winchester" - no idea when I bought it.
Loadbooks "The Complete Reloading Manual for the .223 Remington" - no idea when I bought it.

I use the Speer, Sierra and Lyman the most. The Lee is useless for me since it hardly lists any powders that I use. I'm slowly realizing that the Lyman manual is excellent although it's a bit limited for some calibers such as the .45 Colt (for Ruger Redhawk).

Anyway, I voted for the first four in my list plus "other".

 

[Redneck with a 40]

I've got both of the Lee reloading books, as well as the paperback Loadbook USA editions for 357 mag and 40 S&W. Add the powder manufacturers guides as well, Alliant, Hodgdon, Winchester, and Accurate.

 

[MMCSRET]

I have all those and many more; all the Speer and Hornady, Hodgdon back into the 60's, all Lyman back to 1948 and many more.

 

[33rowdy]

Nosler is the one not listed that I use alot. I guess I feel between Nosler and Hornady are simply a good bullet for the buck. Sierra and Barnes is not common in my area but I have their books. Lyman is the next one on my list.

 

[ar10]

I also use the reload web info from the various manufacturers

 

[ReloaderFred]

I use them all, and I'll add Accurate Arms and Ramshot Powders manuals to the list.

Hope this helps.

Fred

 

[aliveisalive]

I have the speer and lee.

I also have been using the hodgdon online database.

I hope to pick up the Lyman and Hornady fairly soon.

 

[K-Dirt]

I have Hornady, Lyman, Speer, Hodgdon, Nosler and a few freebies from powder companies.

I like Hornady bullets but I wish they showed pressures. I guess I call it a tie
between Lyman and Hornady.

John

 

[Tom S.]

Speer, Lyman, Sierra, and Pet Loads

 

[ADKWOODSMAN]

All except Barnes.
OTHERS:
Nosler,P.O. Akley, and Ken Waters-Pet loads.

 

[R.W.Dale]

Other Other and speer

Metallic cartridge reloading, my favorite and most complete book manual of all.
Nosler
Speer no11



However I seldom use any of em, nowadays I increasingly rely on Hodgon's online centre

 

[BsChoy]

I have the 2nd from the last edition of the nosler book and the last 2 hodgdon manuals

 

[JackOfAllTradesMasterAtNone]

Nosler manual not a choice?

I shoot Speer, Sierra, Nosler, and Hornady bullets across several calibers. So I use all of these manuals for their load data and suggest more than one to new reloaders to read the information prior to reading the load tables. I use them to cross reference data too. One may not list a particular powder for a bullet, but there's enough information in all of them to calculate a starting point for a load in most cases. -I don't do this very often. I have the Lyman manual for Lead bullet loading. The major brands don't show enough information about solid lead bullet powder recommendations.

-Steve

 

[woad_yurt]

I don't even have a single book. I got lucky, I guess, in that W231/HP-38 will do everything I want to do. I just go to the Hodgdon's site and use their online data.

http://data.hodgdon.com/cartridge_load.asp

I'm trying to work up a .38 S&W (shorts) plinker/range load right now that'll use a .358" 148 gr LHBWC so I may need to find another reference.

 

[Dr. Tad Hussein Winslow]

OK, gonna redo the thread/poll.

I need to add:

1. Ramshot
2. Accurate
3. Nosler
4. Metallic Cartridge Reloading
5. Alliant
6. Winchester
7. RCBS
8. Loadbooks

What else?

I'm excluding periodicals such as the Bullet Making Annual. Interested in books intended to be comprehensive, for purposes of this question.

 

[Historian]

Good, Doc,

Glad to see you're adding Nosler and Loadbook. I use 'em both.

Historian

 

[KeithET]

I have several additions of some books. Have to keep up with the new bullets from the manufacturers. As for which I like the best, probably the Lyman books. I like use the cast lead data given as my main reference since I shoot a lot of cast lead bullets. I like to use specific rifle data for a given bullet brand and type so I try to get the latest book from those manufacturers that I use the most.

KeithEt

 

[plinky]

Got several of those and for the most part any will do the job as far as data goes. The ones I like most are Sierra and the old Hodgdon book style (last one I believe).

In the Sierra, I like the more graphic style used to list charges and velocities. Makes it easier to pick the most suitable powders. Also the "accuracy loads" that they give. Results vary of course but it is a good concept.

In the old Hodgdon book I like the pressure data and the sheer amount of data given. However they are not very specific about the bullet used. And of course the book lacks a lot of new cartridges and powders. The online data is great and makes the printed manual less crucial.

I'd love to see a book consisting strictly of load data which combined the plusses of these manuals, while leaving the "How to start reloading" section for a seperate book.

I'm not sure the external ballistic tables in some manuals are worth the trouble. While they are fun to daydream over, none seem accurate enough to make real use of.

 

[Dr. Tad Hussein Winslow]

Anyone know of a new book that has .416 Barrett data in it?