Your question is impossible to answer without violating all of your criteria.

� One manual isn't enough.

� The best oneS are those published by the companies that make the components (especially the bullets) that you use. The other manuals often use data from other sources without examining or testing them. The component-manufacturers test the loads that they publish.

� Get 'em all, and keep 'em all up to date. Always get the latest editions, no matter how many older editions you have, and never get rid of your old ones (unless you send 'em to me for the Powley Center library and museum of modern handloading <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />).

� Check on-line for each company's latest data.

� Buy and study the other books on handloading, not just the manuals.

� Keep in mind that any manual's load data merely describe how they have performed in careful tests -- they don't prescribe the way you're to load your components, especially if you're loading different components or even the same components assembled to different dimensions. Also remember that your loads will almost certainly deliver minor to substantially different performance from what's reported (not predicted) in the manuals.