Reloading Manual (Error)?

[FromTheWoods]

"Firearms of the Old West" from Sportsman's Warehouse is a small, yellow and black-covered paperback.

I was looking to find good loads for my old Winchesters, but now I'm not comfortable with the load information.

A few months ago, I consulted it for .25-35 information. Using H4895, the book says the load range is 24-27 grains for a 117 gr. bullet. So I loaded a variety of weights to test. Nearly all of them caused my bolt/lever to seize. The problem seemed to be excessive pressure.

Consulting reloader-people and Hodgdon's website, the load range for this bullet is suggested to be 19.5 to 22.5. And, indeed, loading in that range, none of my sample loads caused case-sticking.

I'd like to use the manual for several Winchester calibers that I load for. I have a doubt, though, about the accuracy and safety of the information in this manual. Have you people found other discrepancies/problems with this publication?

And here is an embarrassing question: How do you know if the data in this book is for jacketed or cast bullets? Yikes!

[The Dust Collector]

In the majority of handloading books that I own state the firearm used or a universal receiver. They state the chamber pressure in some standard units. These books are published by powder or projectile manufacturers. They have alot of product liability involved as well as professional pride. There are other publications that only reprint what the powder or projectile manufatures have stated. Loadbooks and LEE are 2 of these.
Yet again, there are others that I believe that publish loads that they have built up in their own non professional trial and error method, OR worse, fabricate loads from the comfort of their armchair thinking that if it sounds good it must be.
All of these books have disclaimers. So they should, but some people / manufacturers are by nature more honorable than others. Some texts are there to support a buisness and others exist to support a writer.
The thing to do is examine the book and see how those loads were developed and the methods used to prove them. Then in your mind you will have to evaluate the validity of that publication.
In my opinion books published prior to 1980 tend to run to hotter side than do now. The pressure testing methods have greatly improved in the past 28 years. Many of the loads of the past were a little warmer than product liability allows.
Shooting proper cast and sized lead alloy boolits can be substituted for jacketed bullets
without any ill pressure effects. Anyway not untill leading may play a roll. But that's another topic!