which ABC's of Reloading???

[drband]

Which ABC's of Reloading reference is the recommended book??

http://www.amazon.com/The-ABCs-Of-Reloading-Definitive/dp/1440213968
by Rodney James
or
http://www.amazon.com/ABCs-Reloading-Dean-A-Grennell/dp/0873491262
by Dean Grennell

Just trying not to waste my dollars--

 

[moonman16]

Try the first one THE 9TH EDITION.

 

[TfflHndn]

Save your money. ABCs is very basic and outdated, and of little value except for the brand-new reloader, and even then there is better information available, in my opinion. The Lee and Hornady load manuals have discussions of reloading as good or better, and load data too.

 

[Potatohead]

^^^^+1!! Finally I found someone who agrees with me!

My personal top 3 and why: (no particular order)
-The newest Hornady manual..great intro to headspace(ing?) starting on pg 15; and you usually end up loading a Hornady bullet at some point.
-Lyman 49...data; information on the speed and characteristics of most powders.
-Reloading for Handgunners by Pat Sweeney...all pistol; goes over each of the "most often loaded" calibers in detail and intricacies specific to each.


Plus, there's no pictures to color in the ABCs

 

[rg1]

Can't recommend any of them. Seems to me to be a "history of reloading" with no data and not entirely useful for new reloaders. I like TfflHndn recommend to save your money and buy a modern reloading manual. If you shoot Hornady bullets buy their manual, Sierra or Speer the same. Lyman 49th is also highly recommended. Can't figure out why so many list it at number one for a new reloader because if I started out with ABC's I would have been totally discouraged and confused. Not saying you won't possibly pick up some tips or safety advice but you get better tips and advice from modern manuals rather than 1950's-60's or earlier articles by several different authors. Have no idea which of the editions might be better. I downloaded mine from Amazon and when finished scanning it I deleted the whole book. +2 in agreement with TfflHndn and Potatohead but for some reason a lot still recommend it first?????

 

[Kevin Rohrer]

I have them all. The newest one is junk; the older ones are better, but no better than what you will find in Lyman #49.

If you want to really get in-depth into the history of reloading, get the old Handloader's Digests. They are a gold mine of information. Vol. 1-18. The Dean Grennell versions are the best.

 

[kludge]

Lyman's

 

[greyling22]

personally I would snag this one http://product.half.ebay.com/The-AB...Editors-1997-Hardcover-Revised/804764&tg=info because it is cheaper and hardback. But, and maybe it is because I grew up with the lee manual, then read others first, ABC's really brought nothing new to the table for me. I still prefer lee and lyman the best. Lee is preachy about how great their stuff is (some is, some isn't) but when you get around that it is a gold mine of information, and is still my favorite book of load data. I like the way it is laid out. Lyman is good too, but it costs more.

 

[Potatohead]

Lee is preachy about how great their stuff is

That's putting it nicely!

 

[Smokey Joe]

The ABC's...

is a "how to" and more importantly a "why (and why NOT) to" sort of book. It is decidedly NOT a reloading manual; you will need one of those as well. I'm a fan; don't see it as outdated; it is background information, and much more extensive than any reloading manual, as to background.

For a reloading manual I like the Lyman books, specifically because they do NOT have an axe to grind re: brands of bullets or powder. And the in-depth explanations in the Lyman manuals are pretty good, too.

However, just about any brand-specific reloading manual will have good data for that brand. Most reloaders acquire several manuals along the way, and when developing a new load, refer back-and-forth to all of them. No one manual will cover all the possible combinations of bullet, brass, and powder.

As to which ABC's to get, my usual recommendation is, "the latest available." The publisher, Krause Publishing, seems to get a different editor for each new edition. Whichever one you get, your money will not be wasted, IMHO.

 

[gamestalker]

I started out with the Speer#10 and had very little trouble learning how to properly reload anything. Since then I have read that book so many times I have had to tape the binding back on several times, great information and learning tool, though the data is out dated.

But there are definitely more modern better up to date books available these days, and that will relate to the tools and methods that have indeed evolved over the last several decades.

GS

 

[moxie]

Yup, love my Speers too. And my Lyman. The explanatory material in the front of each is invaluable. And I cherry pick some of the websites, like Alliant, and this one.

 

[Slamfire]

Save your money. ABCs is very basic and outdated, and of little value except for the brand-new reloader, and even then there is better information available, in my opinion.

I agree, I prefer my Lyman Handbook. My newest is a 48th edition, previous was 47th edition, they are all good.

My Lyman 41st edition (pub 1957) is as outdated as my ABC's of reloading, but that is all we had back then.

 

[trigga]

try youtube, great source for knowledge and visual reference.

 

[drband]

Thanks for all the great suggestions... I'll get a couple of manuals and see if I want the abc's after that.