Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Best books - getting started reloading.

I'm just getting started reloading. So far I have bought my press, Forster Co Axe, and some Forster and Redding dies, powder,primers,Nosler brass, and bullets.

I need some good books to get me started and show me how to properly set up my dies and get them adjusted,as well as load info. Mainly I don't yet understand anything about properly adjusting dies. Please suggest some books or sources so I can learn.I just don't want to randomly order a reloading manual not knowing if it will have the info I need.

I also need a powder scale and the brass tools necessary to prep brass. I was thinking of buying a Forster case trimmer but I would like a recommendation for a scale and all other case prep tools I need.

I also need a mic for OAL loaded cartridge size. Maybe I need a book explaining and detailing all the steps and the proper tools. I don't know if that info will be in any reloading manual I might order,or even what the best Manual is for a beginner. I live in a small rural town and have no access to even look at reloading manuals without ordering them.

I found the Lyman manual to be a good one, plenty of photos. If you know an experienced reloader to help you get set up it will help a lot too.

That coax is too much press for a beginner. Send it to me and I will send you my rockchucker. Kidding of course, good choice.

I haven't bought a manual in a while but I think Speer does a pretty good job of explaining things.

As far as gear, you'll want a powder measure in addition o the balance/scale. Don't forget a funnel and a loading block. For case prep you'll need a trimmer, neck and primer pocket brushes, a deburr/chamfer tool, and possibly a tumbler. I like to use a hand primer to seat primers.

You likely want calipers rather than a mic to measure coal.

A means to measure how much you are pushing the shoulder back is handy for getting your dies set up for desired headspace.

Also, I'm sure the Forster is a good trimmer. If it is not powered, though, I'd go with something else. I converted my rcbs trimmer to work off of an electric drill and will not be going back to trimming cases by hand. I still don't enjoy trimming cases but it is not as bad as it was. It is the one aspect of reloading I do not enjoy.

Youtube could be a good source for you. I'd stick to tech videos from the equipment manufacturers. I know Hornady has some decent ones. Don't forget case lube!

Thanks guys. My goals here is to produce the most accurate ammo with the bullets I want to shoot. High volume isn't a concern. I'll be loading 270Win and 7mm-08, 243, and 7mm rem mag. All will be for bolt guns.

If you'll be using conventional full length size dies learn how to adjust them so the brass is sized to suit your particular chamber. The instructions supplied with die sets will quite often have you sizing the brass more than necessary.

There have been several threads on this topic so try a bit of searching. I've typed up a few long winded posts on the topic that even received positive comments.

There is an adapter for the Forster which allows the use of an electric drill, I've used one for years.


OP: Order a copy of The Big Book of Gun Gack from John.

All reloading manuals I've read - Lyman, Sierra, Speer, Nosler and Hornady - have decent basic instructions so any one you get would show you the basics but IMO the Hornady manual is the most friendly for new reloaders. It has a section with clear explanations and lots of explanatory color pictures of what happens in the rifle's chamber during the firing process, why you would resize a certain way and why it is important to not oversize, why you would or would not want to seat a bullet into the lands and so forth. You can buy whole books devoted to reloading but the Hornady manual gives you what you need to start without overwhelming you with advanced stuff that would just be confusing at this point.

The Sierra manual has very good sections on more esoteric topics and might be a good second or third book to get once you're comfortable with the basics, plus they seem to test more powders than some of the others.

As to tools, I want to say get a Lee collet die and a Redding body die right off but you should probably learn with the standard die set first.

A case trimmer is nice and you'll want to get one eventually but isn't needed to begin. Besides a press and dies I'd say the essentials are a powder scale, a chamfer/deburr tool to clean up necks of new brass (unless you're buying prepped match brass from the start), a good set of calipers and a powder funnel. While a micrometer is nice a set of calipers is far more useful - either digital or old school dial will work just fine. Mark the mic as something to get later. A powder trickler for those last few granules is also good to have although a teaspoon will do to start.

Good to have and something you'll want fairly soon is a powder measure.

Other than that I'd just say don't rush out right away to buy all the gadgets you think you might need. Primer pocket uniformers, runout tools, OAL gauges, etc etc etc. Some are very useful and you will probably end up with them; I use the Hornady OAL guage and comparators all the time, but for now just stick to the basic tools. You'll figure out soon enough what other tools will truly help you and which ones are just fluff.

See what your public library has. When I started out ours had Sharpe's book along with others.

Public libraries also have "E" books that we can read from our computers!

They may have a website.

I just glanced at the website of a nearby cities to me's 'handloading' books and they have an entire page full and more including Sharpe's book!

Get a RCBS trimmer, the little drill adapter is cheap. I would start out setting my dies so the bullet seats the same as a factory bullet. I used to try to adjust the length to each chamber, but I have several rifles of the same caliber. I mostly set everything to factory length to start.

RCBS has really great service, if you break or lose a part, they send you a free one. I can't say enough good things about them. Get a digital scale, way more accurate, if you are going to clean and polish brass, go with the wet tumbler with stainless pins. Makes brass like new. Once you get tumbler and pins the expense is over. Pins last forever.

Reloading is fun, anything you have a question about is on U Tube. Use Imperial sizing wax, best out there.

I rarely trim brass unless it's for an AR, learned that the hard way. I loaded 500 rounds that wouldn't chamber. Case gauges are good especially for pistol and AR's. learned that the hard way too. After you resize, if it won't go in case gauge easy, throw it away. This is all just my opinion.

The manuals from the major powder/bullet manufacturers are a very good place to start. Another great book is "The Complete Guide to Practical Handloading" by the late John Wooters. I got a copy years ago, and read it a LOT. I just checked and Amazon has used copies available. I also agree with the poster who suggested John Barsness' books...lots of practical info there, both for beginners and experienced handloaders.

I would add Bob Hagel's Practical guide to handloading and Carmichael's book of the rifle to the list.

Hagel's loads were pretty hot with 300 Win but the writing is good.

Glen Zediker's Handloading for Competition is a quantum leap beyond all of the others. Ignore the chapter on neck turning, but everything else should be relevant. He gives very detailed instructions, which are immensely helpful. Read it cover to cover twice before you buy any more equipment.

http://www.zediker.com/books/handloading/hlmain.html

"THE ABC'S OF RELOADING" Nothing but techniques, tips, how and why, no loading data but the best book for anyone starting out. Sierra is the best for loading data and ballastics and such. The Lee book is pretty good also.

jmo

Most of the manuals have decent info as well as the pamphlets in the die cases for basic stuff. Read a lot of that stuff and play around with it resizing and seating bullets before you ever start putting powder in brass. Get a chronograph.

Search some of Stick's tutorials on seating depth (follow them), load a uppper/mid-range load, run it through a chrono and +/- powder based on speed compared to book (factor in barrel length, etc)...then go shoot a group.

I have several I would suggest the most recent Lyman as having the best instruction for a beginner.

This.

Also, I wish I had listened to the sage words of advice when I was told to keep the brass separate by rifle and just neck size. If you load the same cartridge for multiple rifles, keep the brass separate.


https://www.24hourcampfire.com/ubbth...ool_me_on_the_use_of_a_neck#Post10862913

Full length resizing after every firing is a PITA and results in trimming, chamfering, and deburring.





P

Modern reloading by Richard Lee

I like my GemPro 250 digital scale way better than my balance beam scale.

The Hornady, Nosler and Sierra books are all good resources. Buy them all and read twice each before starting. Also, order the Big Book of Gun Gack by Mule Deer. Some good practical advice and some insight into the peculiarities of handloading.

Also, having an experienced mentor to help you get started is always a good idea.

I'm often tempted to say there is no best and many good enough. Here I'd have to say buy a bunch of books and that might be good enough. To my mind too many of the books, especially the introductory bits at the front of the data books are like learning by watching You Tube - there's a lot unseen and unsaid.

I am frequently confirmed in this opinion when folks on this and other boards ask questions that I think should have been answered before they started playing with primers and gun powders. Doesn't mean folks should wait forever to get started but I do think folks should have a reference library that answers those questions when they start.

In this company I have to say the best of the data books is The Big Book of Gun Gack from John Barsness but notice Rifles and Recipes sells several books as rifles and handloading and an equally useful CD. For a handgun specific book I'd suggest Patrick Sweeney's Reloading for Handgunners. In addition to the Zediker book mentioned above add everything he's written especially the newest TOP-GRADE AMMO. From Safari Press Metallic Cartridge Handloading (Sc) by M.L. "Mic" McPherson. Fred Sinclair did a nice book on precision loading that went through ten editions and is out of print. Precision Shooting published many good books including one on loading large quantities for competition Precision Shooting Reloading Guide as by Dave Brennan now showing absurd pricing. Designing and Forming Custom Cartridges for Rifles and Handguns | Ken Howell is available from Huntington Die Specialties at a fair reprint price along with other useful books.

In order to get beyond what I consider to be too often abbreviated and superficial page limited books in today's market I think starting with a couple of oldies but goodies is the only way to get a complete and sophisticated understanding of the hobby over the years so Earl Naramore on Handloading Ammunition and Phil Sharpe Complete Guide to Handloading each cover things later writers take for granted. Out of copyright and available in cheap reprints. Data is of course meaningless to dangerous for today's readers. Then George Nonte and John Wooters each wrote a fairly complete book on handloading. Bob Hagel Game Loads and Practical Ballistics for the American Hunter and others is maybe not reliable on data and pressure but the man knew a lot and did some useful original work. Sad to think that nobody since Hagel attracted mainstream publishers like Knopf. Nobody like that today. If Bob Hagel then Ken Waters Pet Loads for some different notions. Again newer data should be consulted.

Better not to take old books by now dead men as the gospel. I have a Hollywood Universal turret with a 4 position priming punch turret I bought because Elmer Keith said it was the best. It's been a long time since I saw a domed primer - smiley - but I'd miss a lot never to have read Keith. Bottom line there is no single or short list to replace wide reading. Guns and gunpowder like motorcycles and airplanes demonstrate that a little knowledge is a dangerous thing. Not to worry too much; guns often blow without that much extra damage.

^^^^^^^^^^^VERY IMPORTANT !!^^^^^^^^^^^

This is also called ' partial full length sizing '

That's even MORE important when sizing Belted Mag cases.

Jerry

This.

Brother Clark,

This is a good online tutorial...seems to be the "how to" part of the Sierra manual. They do a nice job of explaining how to adjust a resizing die for "partial full length sizing".


http://www.exteriorballistics.com/reloadbasics/index.cfm

I learned to hand load by reading the Speer manual, the Lee manual, "The ABC's of reloading", and watching videos on YOUTUBE. I don't know anyone who reloads, much less an "experienced" person so I was on my own. My process was to read the manuals and then watch people on YOUTUBE do what I read about. I think if you will do something similar and stick to book loads, you will be fine. I read and watched until I was confident I understood the basics before I bought any equipment.

The reloading manuals are all very similar. They have a section dedicated to explaining the process and, in some cases, telling you how great their equipment is, the rest of the book being load data for all the different cartridges. Be aware that Hodgdon, Barnes, Nosler, and maybe others have load data on their websites.

I'll add another vote for the Lyman manual. It was recommended to me when I began,and it served me well. I also read several others that were mentioned here. I'll second the recommendation to read each manual twice.

Have fun.

The Barns (#4) has a lot of great technical information on reloading. But it only has a limited number of powders, six or seven, for each load.

Here's a trick I found about setting your sizing die. Get a butane lighter and light the end towards the mouth. It leaves a black residue. Then when you size the brass you can actually see how far down the sizing die is going. I neck size only. Once the die is set lock it in place.

I got the new RCBS automatic powder measure and digital scale, last year. It's a little expensive but well worth it! Once you replace the tray it automatically loads the next amount of powder. So by the time you're done seating the bullet the powder measure automatically fills the tray.

The Complete Book of Practical Handloading by John Wootters, 1976.

The best book I've ever seen is The Precision Shooting Reloading Guide which was published about twenty years ago. There are chapters on most of the rifle disciplines with good explanations on how to do it rather than just a lot of charts giving velocities with various powders.

Precision Shooting went out of business in 2012 and I happen to know that there are a lot of these floating around out there somewhere. No idea where but I wish I had bought them from the company when it went belly up. I really need to track them down and find out what happened to them.

FWIW there is one on eBay for sale right now... for aprox $300.00. Makes me really wish I had bought them when I had a chance.

Dick,

That's very interesting!

Apparently I'm going to fund a considerable portion of my semi-retirement by selling books purchased new for $20 or $30 that are now selling for several hundred.... :-)

Lyman gets my vote.

John,

Back in the day I was on the PS board of directors. I checked when Brennan closed the doors and we had a lot of them in stock. I could have bought the lot for about $5000.00. Wish I had. There's an interesting story about how that book came into being. Someday...

I have a lot of gun and hunting books here. Some are worth a lot of money now. I wish there were an easy way to sell them for something approaching what they are worth. If something happened to me, there's no one in the family that would have a clue. I wouldn't be surprised if you had the same situation.

Dick