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Posted: 1/6/2010 3:31:33 AM EDT
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After pulling 3 long nights in the basement reloading room it has become obvious that my reloading manuals are way out of date. Pages are falling out of the bindings, funky basement smells etc. My speer and Hornady books dont even have the 40 S&W cartridge listed. I know I can get specifics on the 'net but feel I am ready for a new book. I have my work up notebooks and realize that while I prefer certain bullet manufacturers and powder types I am most certainly not monagamous
So here's the simple question. If you could have only current manual which one would it be? |
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I generally buy the manual from the bullet make I shoot most. I like Lyman because it covers many different bullet mfg. as well as cast bullets it's probably my go to manual for 90% of my reloading.
Also since I shoot mainly Hornady jacketed bullets I have there manual also,most bullet mfg will send you the loading data on any bullet they make just by calling or emailing them I've done that with several Speer & Sierra bullet. I would get at least two new manuals. |
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I don't think that you are doing yourself a favor by using just one manual. The way to get the best idea of the characteristics of the load you want to work up is to compare data from several sources. You can then see what powders that seem to be favored by most and average out their start and maximum loads to get a very good idea of a goal that will work in most all rifles. Then load your work-up loads.
No single manual has everything I like, or does everything the way I think it should be done. For example, only Hornady, Nosler and Sierra have a separate data section for AR15 .223/5.56 loads. And even there only Sierra has the full range of bullets listed here, not just the heavy 68+ BTHP Match bullets. Lyman shows velocities for the heavy match bullets in a 20" AR. Speer, Nosler, and Lyman give actual velocities attained, and of those, Speer and Nosler shoot them in real rifles for this data. Lyman does a mix, but with a lot of Universal Receiver data. Speer and Nosler seem to always use "even" 1/2 grain charge weights (at least in the Rifle section) e.g. 25.0, 25.5, 26.0, 26.5 grains that are easier for most of use to remember and use. Lyman does this to some degree, but occasionally uses "odd" charge weights as well e.g. 24.3, 27.8 grains etc. Hornady and Sierra use a reporting system wherein they round-off velocities to "even" 50 fps increments and use "odd" charge weights e.g. 23.9, 24.8, 25.7, 26.6. Personally I just work around this and use "even" 1/2 charges and would take 23.9 to 24.0, 24.8 to 25.0, and 26.6 to 26.5. However a lot of novice reloaders are a bit freaked out by deviating from the book in this small way. Of course where the tiny charges used in handgun load are concerned, you have no choice but to go with "odd" charge weights and not round off to the even 1/2 grain, unless you round down. Lyman is THE book for hard cast bullet load data. In addition they use bullets from all the different makers, so you can find some data for stuff like Barnes TSX bullets on occasion as well. If cast bullet shooting is something you do, you should own the Lyman. Speer does make a special little Cast Bullet Manual as a stand-alone book. Nosler hunting bullets are some of my favorites and some bullets like the Ballistic Tip are a bit longer and can up pressure slightly compared to a standard Speer, for example, so I like to reference the Nosler manual. However, their handgun bullet section is fairly slim. On the other hand, Lyman has an extensive handgun section and a large one for T/C and other single-shot "pistols". Speer has some outstanding handgun bullets like the Gold Dot series and a very good handgun section with some excellent tips on loading for handguns, including special issues with CAS loads. Hornady's new manual seems to have the lowest maximum charges of all. I can almost use some of their maximum .223 loads as start loads. THEY got full velocity from that charge, but I don't even come close. Therefore I would hate to have this otherwise excellent manual as my only source of info. Your old Hornady is more realistic IMO, but lacks the new bullets and powders and cartridges. So you can see why I would have a hard time going with just one manual - it is because I have them all and can see their strengths and weaknesses. My system is to get a new reloading manual from some source every year for Christmas. It is a tradition from my wife. This year I was doubly lucky and got the Sierra and Lyman. In your case I would be tempted to get the Lyman because it is such a good all-around data source, and then work on a Sierra and Speer down the road. SELECTED DATA COMPARISONS FROM THE CURRENT RELOADING MANUALS AS AN ILLUSTRATION: .223 REMINGTON - 55 GRAIN BULLET - H-335 POWDER MAXIMUMS Hornady - 23.2 gr @ 3100 fps / Rem 700 26" bbl Lyman - 27.0 gr @ 3270 fps / Universal Recv. 24" bbl Nosler - 25.0 gr @ 3140 fps / Lilja 24" bbl Sierra - 27.5 gr @ 3300 fps / Rem 600 24" bbl (Bolt Action Data) Sierra - 25.7 gr @ 3000 fps / Colt AR15 A2 H-Bar 20" bbl (AR15 Data) Speer - 26.0 gr @ 3092 fps / Ruger M77 MkII 22" bbl. .40 S&W - 180 GRAIN BULLET - POWER PISTOL POWDER MAXIMUMS Hornady - 7.3 gr @ 1050 fps / S&W 4006 4" bbl Lyman - 6.7 gr @ 974 fps / Universal Receiver 4" bbl Nosler - No data as Nosler doesn't make the common 180-gr bullet, just 135 & 150 grain JHPs. Sierra - 6.9 gr @ 1050 fps / Para Ordnance P16 5" bbl Speer - 7.2 gr @ 1013 fps / S&W 4006 4" bbl So you can see that there are definite differences between what the data sources report in their tests and being able to cross-check and average out is a real plus. |
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