Your Favorite Reloading Book?

I'm going to try and get into reloading soon and I'll be loading for 223 and 300 win mag and possibly others. For now I'd just like to get some manuals though and read them and try and know as much about reloading before I jump into it. Any suggestions? I've been told by lots to get the "ABCS of reloading" and I think I'm going to get that one "Hornady 9th Edition" and "Speer #14" but what do all of you "experts" think? haha thanks in advance.
 
my personal favorite manual is hornady's 9th, primarily because for the most part i shoot their bullets.

i currently have hornady's 9th, nosler's 7th, Lyman 49 and Lyman's AR manual in my library.
 
Everyone should have a couple of the older reloading books in my opinion. The Speer #8 (1970) is a great one. Any of PO Ackley's stuff too. Boy howdy, those were the days when ballisticians did not wear lace around their panties! The used real guns and there was no such thing as SAAMI to tell them how hot is too hot. And some of them (trust me!) are hot indeed.

Of course, common sense still needs to prevail but those of us that have been loading for well over 40 years know fully well that many of the "max" load the books show nowadays were only starting loads back in the good old days.
 
Elmer Keith ran some warm stuff, I have a few of his books, one is full of old articles from his days with Guns and Ammo. Called Gun Notes, I believe.

And yes, old reloading manuals are good to have around. They can be bought cheap at estate auctions.
 
I like the Lyman book, but have a half dozen others and in my opinion the more the better, when you see a load show up in a few different books it will usually work out well for you.
 
I have a reloading manual labeled The Complete Reloading Manual for the .223 Remington, in binder form, the cover states it has 1,338 proven and tested loads, 29 various bullet designs, 29 different powders, copyright is 1995, by Loadbooks USA Inc.

Each page has a particular/specific bullet listed with at least 5 different powders listed, estimated velocities with different amounts of powder for each powder listed.

The back cover states this is a unique reloading/information manual. It contains all currently available data regarding loading information for this particular cartridge. This data is compiled from the leading US bullet and gunpowder manufacturers.

I saw these same type books/manuals when I was at a Cabelas in GA last week, just not for the .223.

Anybody use this type of book/manual??
 
Multiple sierra books back to the early 80s lyman from the 70s, nosler, speer, hornady, ackleys pet load books, and cartridges of the world
 
Originally Posted By: jpx2rkI have a reloading manual labeled The Complete Reloading Manual for the .223 Remington, in binder form, the cover states it has 1,338 proven and tested loads, 29 various bullet designs, 29 different powders, copyright is 1995, by Loadbooks USA Inc.

Each page has a particular/specific bullet listed with at least 5 different powders listed, estimated velocities with different amounts of powder for each powder listed.

The back cover states this is a unique reloading/information manual. It contains all currently available data regarding loading information for this particular cartridge. This data is compiled from the leading US bullet and gunpowder manufacturers.

I saw these same type books/manuals when I was at a Cabelas in GA last week, just not for the .223.

Anybody use this type of book/manual??


i like the "one caliber" books a lot.

they are compilation books from data produced by the various manufacturers - both powder and bullet. you can cross reference it to hornady, hodgdon, sierra, nosler, etc. i believe the copies i have cross reference its hornady bullet data to hornady's 8th IIRC.

i have them - one for each caliber i load. i use them at my reloading notebooks so i dont have to mark up my hardcovers i spend good $$ for (other than any errdata that i may make a note of).

i find them a useful place for keeping pet load notes and such, as well as a handy reference that i'm not worried about accidentally getting some case lube on or some such.
 
I bought one of the caliber specific for .223 and then realized that between all my Data books I have (most all going back to late 70's) and what is available from manufacturers online I already have that info.
 
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The caliber specific books are dated, so several of the new powders are not listed. I hear that Nosler will soon release their #8 manual. Their #7 manual has become my go to favorite.
 
It seems a lot like the Lyman and nosler books I might get those on top of a couple others I will probably get the berger book too seeing that I will for sure be using those in my varmint calibers once I get set up for it but I don't want to try to many different calibers I will really be focusing my complete reloading "time" around perfecting a varmint load I like for the my AR (223) as I am getting into this. I feel like I might get lost if I do this with to many different calibers I will find a load for my 300 but I don't think it will take much as the only thing I use it for is whitetail and I know that any size bullet in this caliber works for deer well I will probably just pick a couple bullets (Nosler or Hornady more than likely) that I like see which one shoots better and what powder works good in it and use it. Not really looking for a game changer with the 300. Thanks a lot to everyone who chimed in!
 
Originally Posted By: whitedogoneThese days,the Internet is the best reloading book I've found.

you still need to work up a proper load developement anytime you get a data set - after verifying that its withing a generally safe area based on published data. as almost any experienced reloader can tell you - what works and is safe in one firearm may well NOT be safe in another firearm.

and then there's that whole typo thing - you always need some kind of published data to verify any posted load data against. Its not hard for someone with dyslexia to turn a 25.4 gr load into a 52.4 gr load and not even realized they did it. now while that's an obvious change and you could never put that in a case... what happens if its a 25.1 gr load thats supposed to be 21.5 grains? a simple oops like that can be DEADLY.


i'm not saying its all bad, but especially for inexperienced reloaders, its rarely wise to grab someone's pet load off the web and just use it and assume its going to be safe.


and that's where the true value of a commercially published reloading manual will really show its worth.



anyway, is there anyone reading this that doesnt believe that $30 worth of reloading data isnt worth an eye, finger, or worse?

My $0.02 usd
 
I need to see if there is a newer edition for the 223 and pick up a "big" book or two as well since reloading for the 223 is in my future.
 
I have found the 223 is very easy to load for. A lot of powders work well along with different projectiles. Just find the weight of pill your rifle likes,and you'll be in like flint. One of these days, I want to try the ce223. But benchmark works very well at all speeds and weights for me.
 
Personally I use imr powders more than not and use their website or magazine. I have a load with rl 19 and am gonna try rl 15 in a 22-250, those loads came from hornady and nosler.
 
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