1949 Philip Sharpe Guide to handloading. Excellent reading and im amazed!!!

[mikenbarb]

I just picked up a copyright 1949 Complete Guide To Handloading book by Philip B. Sharpe and im reading it in amazement. I cant believe the knowledge this guy had and its amazing to see some of the equipment he made himself and some is real simple to make. Its a great old reloading book and im looking at the data cringing thinking about blown up actions.LOL. The loads were REAL hot back then and dont think anyone would even consider using them today.LOL. Im just wondering how many other members here have books by him and what years they are. The one I have says Copyright 1937, 1941 and 1949 and mine is 1949 Third edition revised and enlarged. Its a great book and if you can get one I would highly recommend it for some real good reading on reloading and casting. Plus his tips and tricks are great and im going to find alot of his stuff useful for my reloading.

[Poygan]

I first saw this book while stationed on Guam in the sixties and was very impressed with it. I finally located one at a gun show a few years ago. Mine is the third edition, second revision ending in 1953. They may come up on ebay and I suspect they will be pricey.

[mikenbarb]

Im happy because I picked this one up for only 9 bucks. The binding is torn some but its in good shape for its age.

[Phil]

It is probably, to this day, the most complete book on hand loading extant. I've had a signed first edition and the 1941 (42 date) supplement for more years than I want to think about. I still use them for reference. The powders they had then more than likely had different burn rates than the powders we have today. PB was a very thorough fellow, and he covered all the bases. It's amazing how much support he got from all the ammunition factories and gun companies. If you want a treat read the section on chronographs. A forty pound chronograph was considered "portable". Great read, get one if you can find it.

Cheers,

Phil

[MtGun44]

I got my copy a couple years ago. Extremely exhaustive treatment,
state of the art at the time.

Still useful and interesting to a ammo geek.

Bill

[mikenbarb]

Im still laughing about the huge 80mm spotting binos he used and the pic of him talking into a dictaphone and making a voice recording of the shooting conditions for every shot he made.LOL. It ran off of a 6v motor with a car battery and was brought to the range every time he went. Now thats what I call hauling alot of stuff to the bench. I think if it werent for reloaders like him our sport wouldnt quite be the same.

[Bret4207]

I'm always amazed that so many of the shooters and reloaders of today don't have Sharpes, Naramores and Matterns books. To me it's like a minister not owning a Bible! Get those old books by Roberts, Whelen, Keith, Crossman, etc and read them and learn. The tools and powders may be dated, but the theory is the same and you'll come to appreciate what we have today.

Phil Sharpe, despite Elmers claims, is really the man responsible for the 357 Mag. The work guys like him did, and there were lots of them back then, is amazing.

[dromia]

You used to be able to down load Sharpes volume as a pdf file from the net but I don't seem to be able to find the link anymore.

Its a big file but worth it, my original coppy is getting a bit worn now so its nice to refer to stuff on screen even although I don't like reading books on screen.

[mikenbarb]

Bret, Those tools arent out of date. Mine just got broken in and they work great now.LOL.

[Shiloh]

Got mine, the 1949 edition, from my deceased father in laws basement, along with some other stuff.
Lots of good info. Especially about the early and obsolete, no longer manufactured reloading powders.

Shiloh

[1hole]

I've read the foregoing with satisfaction of the recognition of our predecessors. Much of what I read, especially on the net, shows that many who have "discoverd" reloading in the last twenty years or so assume they know more about every thing than previous generations. Not hardly.

Very few of today's reloaders have any idea of how knowledgeable and inventive the old dudes were, nor how much of what we enjoy today are the results of their insight. Sharpe, Whelen, Nonte, Keith, Ackley, Walker, Harrison, Page, etc., were true giants in guns and reloading. We aren't likely to see their likes again. They would be amused to see the plethora of books, fancy tools and "experts" feeding new guys detailed info on how to crimp, or set OAL, or size, prime and seat correctly. "Smart" new guys, dumb old guys. Yeah.

Much like todays "youth" give themselve credit for computers without any thought that it was their dads and granddads who handed them the computers on a platter, without which they would be lost, unable to even do math problems!

Oh, to be young again; I should have rushed out and gotten rich while I still knew everything. Now it's to late, I seem to have forgotten most of it!

My head hurts, think I'll go to my loading room and cram a few cases.

[Char-Gar]

When I started handloading in 1958, I went down to the local bookstore and order Phil Sharps book and Principals and Practices of Loading Ammuntion by Naramore. I went down to the libary and checked out Mann's book.. The Bullet's Flight from Muzzle to Target and read it three times. There are many other fine old books in my libarary.

Like Bret, I don't see how the younger generation survives without such information. The superficial stuff you get on the internet will never take the place of such knowledge.

[Bent Ramrod]

Sharpe's book is the one that set me on the road to being a handloader. The last edition is available in reprint form in one of those NRA Classics series.

Sharpe didn't do it all himself, but he did a lot of it and had a slew of knowledgeable friends and correspondents. Harvey Donaldson provided a lot of the loading data and Ned Roberts wrote the chapter on loading for Shuetzen rifles.

Except for an article in one of the early Gun Digests, I haven't seen much else of his writing. I get the impression that he was a shooting/handloading editor of some magazine, but I have never found out which. He was on the Technical Staff of the American Rifleman for years.

[Bret4207]

Get a copy of Sharpes "The Rifle in America"! WOW!!!! Talk about your exhaustive research. Phil was an shooting industry man, a ballistician, an Ordnanace Officer and a tech geek long before tech was invented. He was also a prolific writer of fiction articles for magazines back in the 20's and 30's, was a regular contributor to 4 outdoor magazines and at one point had multiple research facilities along the east coast. Pretty interesting guy when you look into his background.

[Char-Gar]

I have always surmised that Phil Sharpe and Elmer Keith had some "issues" as Keith always referred to him as "little Phil Sharpe".

[35remington]

And Sharpe frequently mentioned how his "good friend Elmer Keith" had submitted many loads for testing to ballistic labs that were so overpressure that his copies of their letters to Keith upon testing his loads usually contained warnings about never loading to such levels again, "or else he would have a serious accident."

Phil also related stories of Elmer blowing up revolvers while using unsuitable powders.

[MtGun44]

I hear Sharpe was a small man, but I saw Elmer once and he was no giant himself,
esp if he took the 20 gallon hat off. I've learned a bunch about reloading from both.

Bill

[Bret4207]

The animosity between Keith and just about everyone else is legend. I've talked with people who knew then all back in the day and corresponded with a couple others. They were just men, all had the same weaknesses and anyone else. I've given up putting any of them up on pedestals. Some of the out and out mean things people like Askins Jr., O'Connor and others did to Elmer and other writers are just incredible. Of course most of those guys were usually juiced pretty good, Elmer included, so maybe that was part of it.

Sharpe wasn't a 6'4" logger, but his mind was surely big enough for what he did. On his charges of Keith overloading things- I once posted a load I got from Sharpes book on this site and nearly had my head lopped off by the response to my "300% overload!!!". I originally thought i had made a mistake and transposed the info from another cartridge and promptly threw myself on the sword. I later found the load again in Sharpes book and in an older Lyman book. Given what we know now, I'm guessing almost all the old writers have recommended loads that would be considered drastically overloaded today.

[Willbird]

There are pictures of Sharpe at Camp Perry in a Pith hat, and he was a little pencil neck dweeb .

You will really get the willies of you look at Sharpe's data at 55,000 or higher PSI, in the 220 swift, with Hercules 2400 powder.

Askins Jr. I have been told by men who were around him quite a bit was a completely amoral man, who greatly enjoyed killing people.

Some things are interesting, one being that Keith was from a very wealthy family, he did not flaunt that around because he felt people would look down on him if they knew. I always got the impression Sharpe never had to work either.

I do think Elmer did everything he said he did, and quite a bit more, the people who knew him well felt he UNDER stated things if anything. When Elmers loads blew up his guns I do not think he hid them and kept mum about it.

Bill

[Firebird]

Uhh, Elmer Keith wasn't from a wealthy family. Maybe some of the cousins back in Missouri were wealthy, but Keith's parents weren't, and neither was Keith. Read his autobiography ("Hell, I was There"); if the Keith family had been wealthy maybe they could have afforded better medical care for Elmer or his daughter.