Old Reloading Manuals

[choprzrul]

Score! I really like having older manuals around to consult on loads. I found 3 more yesterday at my local gun shop, used, and on sale:

Hodgdon 25th ed., 1986 $1.00

Speer 11th ed., 1987 $3.00

Lyman 45th ed., 1970 $1.00


I looked up a .308 with 150gr bullet & IMR 3031 in each manual:

Hodgdon: 43.0gr, 2706 fps

Speer: 44.0gr, 2755 fps

Lyman: 44.5gr, 2849 fps

It makes me wonder if powders behave differently now (I'm sure formulas get tweaked over time), or if it is simply a case of lawyers getting involved.

Anyway, 3 great additions to my library.

Does anyone else collect and use these old manuals?

.

[bruceflinch]

I have an old one & big103 has a coouple. It is interesting to note the differences in recipes. I think the Lawyers had an impact.

[spy-d]

I have 2 very old Serria manuals.
The oldest one, 1960s Has loading information that the new books have omited.
Yes, Powders have changed a bit, But the info is worth more than gold.

[CCrawford]

This is my little reloading manual project. Feel free to join in with data.

I can stop anytime I want. Darn OCD.

[gunboat]

ccrawford -- Perhaps a copy of "Cartridge Case Measurements" by Dr. Arthur J. Mack would be useful to you.

[choprzrul]

This is my little reloading manual project. Feel free to join in with data.

I can stop anytime I want. Darn OCD.

Interesting project. This made this thread even better.

Now, when are you going to add another dimension and scan all of those manual's pages to pdf, then include links to the pdfs for each manual/caliber plot?

Shouldn't take you more than an hour or so.... :-))

.

[CCrawford]

As to scanning pages - on the newer stuff, copy write might be a problem. I'm allergic to lawsuits and such. I'm thinking your a little light on your time estimate also (by a decade or so).

As to "Cartridge Case Measurements" by Dr. Arthur J. Mack, I'll have to add it to the list of things to review. Thanks for the tip.

I have about 6 or 8 books not yet entered, so more to do. Hodgdon 2013 and Alliant come out this month, as well as Nosler 7 and Hornaday 9 need to be done. Maybe Ramshot, Accurate, VV and Norma will have new versions posted after the SHOT Show. I know that further research needs to be done to remove and/or bunch cartridges appropriately, so as time allows, I'll continue adding manuals and clean up the dupes, rimfires that snuck in the list, variations that have so little difference as to not matter, metric and standard copies, etc.

As always, constructive help, corrections, additions, etc. are always welcome.

Criss

PS I just found a Spanish website that had over 9K different calibers. I'm not going down that road just yet! Another list of useful links is here.

[wtkaiser]

I have a couple of older manuals in a box someplace. They're fun reading. But the scaling down of recipes is not always the lawyers' work. modern measuring and going to PSI instead of CUP did more to tame some of the loads than lawyers. PSI can be measured more closely and some of the recipes were found way over the SAAMI limit.

I re-read that stuff just today out of a 2 year old HANDLOADER article. I believe it.

[gunboat]

The good part is I have a lot of old manuals such as lyman 39, cast bullet handbook #1, and hodgdon #1-
The bad part is, they were new when I got them.

[rromeo]

I have Speer #9. If anyone needs .44 Automag data, let me know.

[CSACANNONEER]

I have a shelf full of manuals and other load data. I alway collect the latest reloading manuals from powder and bullet manufacturers at SHOT Shows. But, I also have a lot of old manual. Yes, sometimes powder formulas change a little over time or just vary from lot to lot (even canister grade powders vary from lot to lot).

[choprzrul]

I have a couple of older manuals in a box someplace. They're fun reading. But the scaling down of recipes is not always the lawyers' work. modern measuring and going to PSI instead of CUP did more to tame some of the loads than lawyers. PSI can be measured more closely and some of the recipes were found way over the SAAMI limit.

I re-read that stuff just today out of a 2 year old HANDLOADER article. I believe it.

Excellent info. As always, start low & work up looking for signs of pressure.

.

[gunboat]

Regarding dup and psi - would not saami specs have also been in cup when the older manuals were written?

[choprzrul]

Regarding dup and psi - would not saami specs have also been in cup when the older manuals were written?

^^^Excellent Point^^^

It doesn't matter if the measuring method has changed. As long as they used a standardized method for setting limits and then measuring powder results.

Hmmm...

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[Sgt Raven]

I still have my first manual. Lyman 43rd from 1964 and a real old P.O. Ackley manual.