Thread: Recommended Reloading Reading

Hi all,

Bought my first rifle and it comes with some basic reloading gear, and a quantity of hand loaded ammunition. Now before I start doing this myself I know there's a lot to learn, so what are some essential books/websites/resources I should study up on?

I'm not going to be daft and pack as many grains as possible, but not being daft vs knowing what I'm doing (and why) is a big leap.

Until I'm confident I'll stick to factory ammo, but really want to get stuck into reloading.

Oh, and calibre is 223.

Any good reloading manual has the basic steps at the start and then let your curiosity wander across the internet for anything else you might want to know.

The Accurate Chain. You can order it from Amazone, its written by Hendrik van Rensburg, a well respected and very knowledgable reloader and shooter in South Africa.

The listed price was $19(UDD). Totally undeerpriced.

Easy to read and understand, I would recommend it very highly.

Originally Posted by pickled_puck

Hi all,

Bought my first rifle and it comes with some basic reloading gear, and a quantity of hand loaded ammunition. Now before I start doing this myself I know there's a lot to learn, so what are some essential books/websites/resources I should study up on?

I'm not going to be daft and pack as many grains as possible, but not being daft vs knowing what I'm doing (and why) is a big leap.

Until I'm confident I'll stick to factory ammo, but really want to get stuck into reloading.

I have a Sierrra reloading manual, its an older version but there's lots of really good info in there. Yours if you want it. just PM me a delivery address.

Greetings,
Handloader Ammunition Reloading Journal put out by Wolf Publishing and Load Data dot com are good sources for reliable articles and data, together with the Hodgdons and ADI on line load data. The first two are subscription services but some of the Load Data articles are open source. More importantly find yourself a mentor. Nelson is a hot bed of Deerstalkers target shooting so make contact with your local NZDA branch. You should find someone there. I did a thread about 2020 for those new to handloading that you might want to look up. The .223 together with the .308 are likely the two easiest cartridges to load for on the planet. PM me if you have specific questions, I load for the .223 (two rifles) and have heaps of chronographed data.
Regards Grandpamac.

Nick Harveys Practical Reloading Manual.

My first manual was Speer #7 (1966 IIRC). I still have it but it is in poor shape now after a lifetime of use. It provided reasonable good "how to" knowledge from a bevy of those old time writers who sadly don't seem to have been replaced in the modern day. For many years all I used was Speer's 150gr 30 cal.

The loads in my Speer #7 are not that relevant anymore but I like reading the manual every now and again - like visiting a museum.

The other one, although I was never a fan of the author, is as mentioned already, Nick Harvey's Practical Reloading Manual. You just had to be careful of some of his loads. My copy had many after printed corrections.

It's the how to knowledge that is required for someone starting out, not a zillion loads and complex articles. Up to date loads are available thru online manuals etc ADI/Hodgdon and others.

A couple o years ago I thought I had better get modern and bought the latest Speer manual. I was mighty disappointed with its quality.

I should have added.

The Accurate chain does not show 100s of pages with loads for different calibres.

The author was a very experienced reloader and set his pen to paper to teach other how to reload, the explains step by step what to do, how to do it and he also discuss different reloading tools.

Ive hosted reloading classes for many years - this was the handbook I used.

@Jaco Goosen - do you know of a supply of the paperback version rather than the electronic version for this book. It looks interesting but I still like to have a book in my hands.

Hornady Reloading Manual or Nick Harveys, although the latter is a bit out of date with many loads these days

Modern Reloading (Second Edition) by Richard Lee. A very good step-by-step introductory/instruction book for the beginner. Naturally he has a bias for his own product (Lee) but just read past that not that there is anything wrong with Lee Products and with some a very good Loads Section at the back covering multiple powders. It really is a must have on the book shelf/loading bench.

This is a really good simple guide for how to reload both bottleneck and straight wall cartridges:

https://www.redding-reloading.com/im...ding_guide.pdf

Perfect for beginners to reloading.

Thanks all, very helpful. I'm messaged you @zeropak, and might hit you up as well @grandpamac once I've got stuck into it.

one of the early Nosler manuals #2 or #3 both have awesome front half of book..as dos the harvey norman mentioned above that not only tell you how..but why to do stuff..... what happens and why
you can make things as simple of complicated as you like....for me a cheap load that does the job equal or slightly better than factory has always been easy to do...
the only silly question is the one you should have asked and dont.