Just as important as reloading equipment, reloading manuals will guarantee that you have the correct charge weights, bullet weights, and case lengths that you need for safe shooting. More importantly, they are written for beginning reloaders. These manuals contain limitless information like tips on loading for bolt action rifles, military style rifles, precision rifles, pistols, etc. They lay out step by step what needs to done to ensure safe reloading techniques. While there are many among many different manuals to choose from, the data in each manual is tested and safe. Each reloading manual displays minimum and maximum charge weights according to bullet weights and types of bullets (ie. Soft point, hollow point, round nose, etc) . Once a reloader is familiarized with these basic standards, they can begin to work up a load that works best for their needs.

Speer Reloading Manual

Working up a load is when the reloader starts from minimum load (charge) weights and works their way up not exceeding the maximum charge listed in the reloading manual. A person would want to work up a custom load of their own for various reasons. For example, minimum loads are set to guarantee the bullet leaves the barrel but do not always provide the best velocity or accuracy. In order to obtain higher velocities or better accuracy, the shooter will have to do a number of trial and error tests until they are satisfied with the results. If you are just reloading for “plinking”, velocity and accuracy are not that important.

Lyman 49th Edition Reloading Manual

There are many manuals to choose from such as the Speer reloading manual, Hornady reloading manual, Lyman reloading manual, Lee precision reloading manual, and the Sierra reloading manual. Any of these manuals are available from 20 to 50 dollars depending on which edition you buy. Some are available as a reloading manual pdf file. These are typically free off the internet but often leave out important info. On the other hand, powder companies generally have their reloading data available in a free pdf file, but only show load data for their brand of powder. I personally recommend having a hard copy of a reloading manual, it saves constant trips to the computer and most importantly, it saves time!