Disappointed.

[Captain*Kirk]

Midway has the latest Sierra reloading manual on sale right now for $26.00 and change. Couple that with their free shipping offer and I couldn't refuse, since I've gone to using the #2800 Pro Hunter RN bullet in .35 Remington for my reloads...
Frankly, I'm not impressed. Big, bulky 3-ring binder that looks like it will be quite easy to lose pages from over the years. The .35 Remington page (yes, one page. Only one bullet) was quarantined to the "Legacy" section in the back and contained the exact data that was in my 'Loadbook' .35 Remington/.350 Rem. Magnum that cost me a grand total of $6.95 earlier this year. For the other cartridges I load, none of the powders I prefer are even listed. This is one of my pet peeves at loading books all nicely shrink-wrapped in the Big Box stores. You don't know what you're getting until you buy it (kinda like Obamacare...LOL!) At any rate, I'll keep it but don't expect it will see much use unless I get to developing a new load using another Sierra bullet. :killingpc

[Der Gebirgsjager]

Too bad it didn't have what you wanted, but I'll bet the book will come in handy down the road and you'll probably be glad you bought it.

[Winger Ed.]

I think they did it that way so you could buy their updates every so often and add the new pages,
or replace pages that had been revised rather than having the whole book go obsolete.

[Blindshooter]

My problem with it is the cheap stock they used.

[richhodg66]

I'm still trying to get my head around using a jacketed bullet in .35 Remington.

[robg]

had that manual for years .i like to clip targets in it with my load data as it keeps it all together .only down side is why 3 ring not 2 or 4 ?

[Captain*Kirk]

I'm still trying to get my head around using a jacketed bullet in .35 Remington.

That's all I've ever used on deer-sized game. Very effective and very deadly. No gas check required.

[Texas Gun]

It’s not just Sierra look at Lyman you expect to have Loads for cast bullets and others but the new 50th edition barely has any I have all the Lyman manuals they have more data than the new 50th edition lee second edition reload manual actually has more data in it than all the others now I have not chicks Speer I only have old spare manuals up to 11 does anybody have a new spear manual

It’s not just a load data that’s disappearing it’s all the other information they used include as well

Something I’ve been doing is buying these little paperback manuals that are cal Pacific I have one for 223 . 30-06 and 8mm I’m about to buy one for 45 cl and 44 mag

Oh and do not buy the ballistics reload manuals for shotgun they are worthless

[Captain*Kirk]

It’s not just Sierra look at Lyman you expect to have Loads for cast bullets and others but the new 50th edition barely has any I have all the Lyman manuals they have more data than the new 50th edition lee second edition reload manual actually has more data in it than all the others now I have not chicks Speer I only have old spare manuals up to 11 does anybody have a new spear manual

It’s not just a load data that’s disappearing it’s all the other information they used include as well

Something I’ve been doing is buying these little paperback manuals that are cal Pacific I have one for 223 . 30-06 and 8mm I’m about to buy one for 45 cl and 44 mag

Oh and do not buy the ballistics reload manuals for shotgun they are worthless

My Speer manual is also #11. Which is why I considered buying a newer manual in the first place. Honestly, if I could have had the opportunity to browse through it beforehand I would've passed.
My problem with the cal. specific 'Loadbooks' is that it's outdated info for the most part, and they are made up of photocopied pages (rather poor ones at that!) and have advertising in them. I probably should have got the latest Speer manual but it wasn't on sale, and I don't know how much updating has actually been done other than adding new cartridges that I don't own.
I have to admit, it's pretty disappointing to drop 30 bucks on a book you will most likely never use. Might be a good thing if we share information about what reloading manuals are worthwhile and which aren't. With that in mind, I'll say this; if you are new to reloading, or use a lot of the bullets Sierra offers, then this manual might be a good fit. But if you use cast boolits or various manufacturers' jacketed bullet offerings, I'll go out on a limb and say "hold on to your money". Looking forward to hearing from others as to what they consider great sources of information or a waste of money...

[gnappi]

>>SNIP<<Oh and do not buy the ballistics reload manuals for shotgun they are worthless>>SNIP<<

Ballistics for shotguns? I can see it now...

#9 shot--- Pattern (whatever choke you have) Effective Distance (About 40 feet)
7,8 shot (See #9 above)
Buckshot --- Pattern (see #9 above) Effective Distance (50 yards... maybe)
Slug --- Effective Distance Up to 50 yards, a bit more with Kentucky Windage (and elevation) :-)

Patterning shot --- Do this and forget this manual!

[gnappi]

It’s not just Sierra look at Lyman you expect to have Loads for cast bullets and others but the new 50th edition barely has any I have all the Lyman manuals they have more data than the new 50th edition lee second edition reload manual actually has more data in it than all the others now I have not chicks Speer I only have old spare manuals up to 11 does anybody have a new spear manual


Oh I have Speer 12 It's fatter ( about 100 more pages) it has some "newer" caliber load data, it's organized better but... I've always found Speer data to be anemic and I've only used it as a cross reference to others.

[gwpercle]

There's a lot to be said for the " One Book / One Cartridge " loading manuals / booklets
The Complete Reloading Manual for the (cartridge of interest) . www.loadbooks.com
I had never bought any of these but last year got one for the 41 Magnum . For sheer information devoted to one cartridge and at under $10.00 ...it's the best thing since sliced bread .
I'm going to buy a few more... just having all that information in one place beats not looking through 6 different loading manuals seven ways to Sunday .

[Texas Gun]

Here are some of the manuals I use
http://castboolits.gunloads.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=270037&d=1603510909http://castboolits.gunloads.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=270036&d=1603510889

[Captain*Kirk]

Nice collection! And probably better info than some of the newer manuals.

[smithnframe]

How much "cast" bullet data is in this manual?

[Randy Bohannon]

I have the specific cartridge pamphlets for .41 Rem. Mag and 375 Winchester both are equally split between cast and jacketed. No reason to ever discard old reloading manuals,still have the very first one I bought. Various component manufactures used to do small pamphlets with reloading info for their products, still have Winchester, Hodgen pamphlets.

[Wayne Smith]

How much "cast" bullet data is in this manual?

The Sierra? None. It is based on their bullets. If you use their bullets or comparable it is invaluable. I started reloading with their manual, and when living in Whittier used to drive up to their plant and buy their seconds by the pound in brown paper bags. I still buy seconds when available.

[GregLaROCHE]

Bullet manufacturers should give that information out for free to sell their products. At least free online.

[Petrol & Powder]

In addition to other manuals, I have the Sierra manual that the OP speaks about. The 3 ring binder format is handy when you want to open the book up to a particular page and have it stay open while laying flat on the bench. I've added a few tabs to mine to quickly find key pages. Yes, the paper stock used was pretty thin and the plastic binder will eventually crack where it flexes but it's a good manual overall.

As for Loadbooks, I have a few but I'm not a big fan. The cartridge specific Loadbook is nothing more than a collection of data from various manuals. While they are useful and contain a lot of data for a single cartridge - They are NOT economical ! If you only need one or two Loadbooks, they are great. But once you buy 3 or 4, you might as well just buy an entire manual.
I'm sure that there are some reloaders that only load 2 or 3 cartridges and they would benefit from possessing 2 or 3 cartridge specific manuals. But most of us branch out out well beyond 2 or 3 cartridges.

[Texas Gun]

The powder manufactures did used to give you data for free if you see in my picture I have of Winchester pamphlet That says ball powder on it Are used to like buying Hodgens powder because they gave you some data on the cans

And the cartridge pacific books you could buy one for the few cartridges you load and it’s still cheaper than buying a Multi cartridge manual and way more data For that cartridge

[TNsailorman]

All the bullet manufacturers put data into their manual that included their bullets and no others. I have old Hornady, Speer, and Sierre manuals and they are all that way. I guess the thinking was that if one of their competitors bullets showed more velocity than the same bullet caliber and weight as theirs, they would loose sales and they are probably right. Velocity is King to most shooters. I too used the free powder phamplets quite a bit and they were usually full of good info but again, they used their own powder and loads only and not their competitors. james

[Petrol & Powder]

Loadbooks run $6.50 - $10.00 each. If you're ONLY loading one cartridge, they are inexpensive. If you end up buying several, you will quickly exceed the cost of an entire manual.

A while a Loadbook will provide data from multiple manuals for a particular cartridge, that data often overlaps. So what appears at first glance to be data from several bullet makers and powder suppliers, it is actually just a handful of sources that overlap. To obtain the permission needed to re-print that old data, Loadbooks had to include a substantial amount of advertising in each book. Out of one of my a 63 page Loadbooks, I counted 13 pages of advertising. In addition, there were several pages of disclaimers, logs, repeated information on cartridge history and other non-data information. So there's not that much data in one Loadbook and a lot of that data is repeated.

If you ONLY need one wrench or one socket; it is far cheaper to go to a store and purchase that individual wrench or socket. However, if you will eventually need 20 different wrenches or sockets, it is FAR cheaper to simply buy the entire set than it is to assemble that set piecemeal.
A $10 Loadbook is cheaper than a $30 manual but 3 manuals are cheaper than 20 Loadbooks !

[Texas Gun]

Depends on how you look at it How much money do you think I have an all those manuals It’s around $220.00 that’s 2 Sierra binders 6 Speer one lee 4 Lyman metallic cartridge 2 Lyman Shotshell 1 Hodgens 1 Hornady
Even if the cartridge Specific’s cost me form 8.00 to 15.00 each I can buy 15 of them for around 195.00

[Petrol & Powder]

"Depends on how you look at it How much money do you think I have an all those manuals It’s around $220.00 that’s 2 Sierra binders 6 Speer one lee 4 Lyman metallic cartridge 2 Lyman Shotshell 1 Hodgens 1 Hornady
Even if the cartridge Pacific’s cost me $15 each I can buy 15 of them for 195.00"



Specific not Pacific

And $15 times 15 Loadbooks is $225. not $195

[Captain*Kirk]

How much "cast" bullet data is in this manual?

As was mentioned by another poster...none. The manual only refers to bullets manufactured by Sierra. The 'Loadbook' I have for .35 Remington/.350 Rem. mag has a photocopy of the exact page that's in my new Sierra manual. It's not really money wasted as I'm always comparing load data for the numerous cartridges I load, and I saved 25 bucks on the manual and the free shipping offer, so really no complaints on that end. It was just kind of a shock to see that I already had a copy of the load data already in the Loadbook. I guess maybe I thought that there might be newly developed data that might make a difference. But, no. I never considered the part about the binder staying opened to the page you're on...it can be a real exercise in patience to have my Speer manual go flipping through pages while I'm trying to use load data.

[Walks]

The loadbooks are nothing but Xerox copies from pages of the Bullet, Powder, Tool Makers Manuals.
Bought one, never buy another.

Have all Speers but the last.
All Sierra's but the last.
All Hornady's But 10th.
Nosler thru 4th
Hodgdon 20-24 and Magazine 2004-2018. Finally got My Daughter to stop buying them.
Lyman 41rd-50th, plus all 4 CBH's, Pistol & Revolver and 32,36 & 38.
And 1 or 3 of the Speer Wildcat books.

Is there anything new I'd really be interested in ?

[Texas Gun]

Sorry was using the dictation program

[onelight]

I think the bullet manufactures want to sell bullets more than books so they make manuals to sell the bullets they make.

[Texas Gun]

Yeah and same with the power companies

[19Rams]

I like the load data.com site. It's an annual subscription but it has the answer when I'm looking for a particular bullet/powder combination.