Reloading Manuals to Have?

[DonMountain]

I got into reloading maybe 40 years ago and bought several reloading manuals and all of my reloading equipment. Over the years I have drifted back and forth with using cast lead boolits and J-Word bullets. And most of my J-Word bullets that I still have in stock were from 30 years ago. Anyway, my question is this. I have noticed that a lot of the powders in the old manuals are disappearing from the market and new powders are appearing. So I am thinking of updating to some newer manuals. Would anyone like to recommend newer reloading manuals that they like to use? Both for J-Word bullets and for cast Lead boolits? I don't even know what the better J-Word bullets are to buy now. I used to use a lot of Hornadys years ago and still do for some long range shooting in the 223. But I see lots of other bullet manufacturers out there now. I generally use boolits for most of my shooting especially in the big bore guns and bullets for long range stuff in the 223 and 338 Win mag. I think the Sierra bullet plant is in Sedalia, Missouri, which is only 50 miles from where I live. Are their bullets ok?

[Mauser48]

Hodgdons website is great for j words because it is constantly updating with new powders and such.

[RayinNH]

The Lyman manuals are my favorite. The Lyman cast bullet manuals are the best for lead, #4 being the newest. The regular Lyman manuals cover both lead and jacketed loads, the newest being the 49th. Both the 4th and 49th cover the newest powders at the time of printing.

[Harter66]

Sierra is good , they are however tuned to ideal uses and not always good in a lesser cartridge.

I too am partial to the Lyman books.

[Uncle Grinch]

My hands down resource is Ken Water's PET LOADS. It really covers most cartridges and goes into detail on various powders, bullets (even a few boolits!) and brass. My second choice is Lyman's Cast Bullet Manual.

[MattOrgan]

I'd add the Lee book too. Sierra makes great target and varmint bullets and their game bullets are ok for the standard hunting cartridges on things like deer for .270 and larger in my opinion. I'm ashamed to admit that I've consumed the Koolaid and gone to a "premium" type bullet for any game larger that coyotes when hunting with jacketed bullets even though the animals are not any harder to kill than they were 40 years ago.

[Omega]

I'll have to keep an eye on this thread, I was wondering the same but for just the
cast side of thing's. I was leaning toward Lyman #4 but sometimes the previous versions are better so haven't pulled the trigger yet.

[JohnH]

I wish I could give an intelligent answer here, but the older I get the more I realize I'm a dinosaur surrounded by mammals. I've got the newest Lyman's (#4 and #49), and have the powder makers online data pages bookmarked, but the reality is the newest powder I've worked with is Hodgdon's Titegroup, AA2015, and Alliant 10X. Sierra makes great j words, as does Speer but frankly, I think all the hype surrounding the newest latest bonded core's and homogenous designs are that hype. I've killed lots of deer with both standard cup and core j words and cast and when the ball is put in the boiler room, it does the job. I think the real problem for a dinosaur like myself is that once all the market volitiles of recent pass and things return to normal, what is going to be available is the "newest latest greatest" and some of the powders and other components which have served us so well in the past are going to be in limited supply as manufacturers shift their product lines to more cost efficient/profitable products.

[jmort]

Modern Reloading by Richard Lee
Lyman's Cast #3 (reprint Cornell Publishing)
Lyman's Cast #4

[cbrick]

The newest Speer book is IMHO the best published in several years, also cover some RCBS boolits. The Sierra Manual is my usual first look up largely by habit but it's a good reference. Online Hodgdon.com simply can't be beat.

Rick

[zuke]

I have both LEE manuals

[robg]

sierra ,lyman,etc but i think lee manual the most useful

[trapper9260]

I say it depend on the powder and bullets you use .But for me I use the Lyman cast and 49 now I have some of the older ones and Hornady.

[FLHTC]

Sierra Match King and Game King bullets have always been good performers for me and I always felt that Hornady was a bullet of lesser quality.
The web sites of those powder companies that have released new powders is the first place I'd look for data but I would print what you want and need because we never know when the Internet could crash or those sites become hacked. I have a wide range of manuals that span close to 80 years but as powders disappear, the older manuals become less useful. I won't be adding any more manuals since so much data is now on the net but as I mentioned before, I print and file it.

['74 sharps]

I get my jacketed and cast bullet info from Hodgdon's web site.

[Tatume]

Hodgdon web site and Sierra, Speer, and Hornady printed manuals are my recommendations.

[Wayne Smith]

Sierra are excellent bullets - but their Match bullets are just that, thin skinned and will blow up on game. Their GameKing bullets are the traditional cup and core bullets that have been killing game for a hundred years. If I were going to Africa or after Grizzley I would buy a special bullet. Otherwise the GameKing is close to ideal.

You can go to the factory and buy their blems for cheap. I shot them when they were in Santa Fe Springs and I was just down the road in Whittier. I had a Rem. 25-06, shot targets with four 2" square bullseyes on it. I would put one group at each corner of each bullseye at 100 yds with their seconds! Only problem is some flash or discoloration, nothing else. Their BulletSmith's are excellent answer people, too. Good people to get to know.

[lightman]

Lyman and Sierra are my favorites. The on-line stuff from the manufactures is also very good. You can't go wrong with Sierra! They make excellent bullets, some of the best! Like Wayne says, you may want to look at something else if you have really special needs, such as Africa. Sierra has won lots of matches and set lots of records. And killed lots of game. Their hunting bullets often shoot as well as match bullets. I've weighed lots of bullets, and very few can equal Sierra for consistency.

[mac266]

I recommend the Lyman Cast Bullet Manual for boolits, and the Hornady manual for J-words (there are a tiny bit of cast in there).

Remember, even if a powder is listed in a 30 year old book, it doesn't mean the powder's chemical composition hasn't changed. They change on a somewhat regular basis, so what is listed in an old manual as a max. load may not be true anymore.

The Hornady manual has special sections of load data for the M1 garand, .223 service rifles, and .308 service rifles. If you load for those, you want their book!

[1Shirt]

There is no such thing as to many reloading manuals! Start with New Lyman manuals and work back to as many old ones as you can find. Get, all of them regardless of who publishes. Cross referencing is both fun and a factor of safety.
1Shirt!

[Harter66]

I'm going to take the plunge here .

9mm/38/357 are the same diameters in most cases for cast,yeah I know slightly off track .
Cast bullets by there very definition are ..............ta da...... monolithic solids inherently capable of expansion and passing through lots and lots of soft tissue. It took me a long time to figure that out.

Cross reference is an absolute I haven't found many mistakes but I have found the occasional + 2 or -2 min/max loads in competing books and rifle loads not found in the pistol sections.

[atr]

I wish I could give an intelligent answer here, but the older I get the more I realize I'm a dinosaur surrounded by mammals.

I can relate to that statement !
For J's I am still using 1960 vintage Speer manuals + a 1980 Sierra manual +.
For cast I am still using a 1960 vintage Lyman Cast; I also have older cast manuals Lyman and Ideal I use for reference.

Lately I have been downloading reference loading data from Hodgen and Alliant and use them as a cross check against my older manuals.

[DonMountain]

Sierra are excellent bullets - but their Match bullets are just that, thin skinned and will blow up on game. Their GameKing bullets are the traditional cup and core bullets that have been killing game for a hundred years.

You can go to the factory and buy their blems for cheap. I shot them when they were in Santa Fe Springs and I was just down the road in Whittier. I had a Rem. 25-06, shot targets with four 2" square bullseyes on it. I would put one group at each corner of each bullseye at 100 yds with their seconds! Only problem is some flash or discoloration, nothing else. Their BulletSmith's are excellent answer people, too. Good people to get to know.

Well, this is good to know. I need to make a trip to their factory to see what they might have to offer for use in my 338 Win Mag and 223 for those really long shots on coyote and deer. Do any of the other manufacturers offer seconds for reasonable money? Seems to me I have seen another one in Sedalia, Missouri besides Sierra?