Reloading Manuals

airedale · September 27, 2023

I cut my teeth on reloading with the Lyman number 44 Reloading Handbook back in 1967. I picked the Lyman manual to start out with for several reasons. Lyman covered all phases of reloading, handguns, rifles, shotshells along with casting and loading your own bullets. The other brand specific manuals like Hornady or Speer would have data for only what bullets they themselves manufactured, same with powder manuals listing only loads for what powders they produced. Lyman had data for everyone's components. Lyman also gave very good explanations and instructions on how to actually reload along a specific accuracy load with each bullet which I found to be pretty much spot on. As I got into reloading more and more I obtained all the manufacturer's manuals and all have proven to be useful.

A lot of water has passed under the bridge since Lyman number 44, many new cartridges and many new powders have come on to the scene, some really good ones with longevity and stellar performance and others that were pretty much flashes in the pan and faded into obscurity. With all the new cartridges that keep popping up new additions in manuals appear from time to time to keep abreast on the handloading front

Just picked up both the new Hodgdon and Lyman number 51, Hodgdon lists 161 powders for reloading and goes into detail on the use and burn rates of each one, talk about selection! The new Lyman is as good as ever keeping up with all the new cartridges that have appeared on the market the past few years. What I did not care for is Lyman dropped some of the old cartridges and their loading data.

Looking to update I would say the new Lyman is still a top choice for the handloader.

If you are not handloading you should be, the ammo situation is steadily getting worse and as long as you have Democrats in power it will continue to do so.

Al