Quick question about which reloading guide to use.

[CodyGT46]

So I'm still a new reloader and very much an amateur. Right now I'm loading .38 Special Hornady 110gr XTP and Hornady 125gr XTP over Unique as the powder.

So where the question comes in is I'm planning on starting to reload .357 Magnum in the future since I already have plenty of bullets that'll work, its just that my reloading books have contradicting information comparing the two. I have the Hornady 9th edition reloading manual, and the Lee Modern reloading 2nd edition. I use a Lee loader so I figured it'd be good to have the same brand book as loader and bullets. Now the Hornady book does not list any .357 loads using Unique with their XTP bullets only lead/cowboy bullets, now the Lee book has multiple listings to go with XTP bullets over Unique powder. Such example is the 125gr XTP with a starting grains of 8.4 of Unique

It lists in the book that XTP loads are for use with Hornady XTP, Speer Gold Dot and Remington Saber bullets.

Just to be on the safe side I plan on just getting Accurate No 7 or Power Pistol.

Any help on this subject would be quite enlightening.

[Enfield47]

Yeah, you'll find lots of contradicting info between the manuals. Check the powder manufacturer's site too and see if they list your bullets. The Lee manual is a compilation of other sources and probably has the most powder and bullet type load data. If I have two or more sources that are all over the place with starting loads, I'll take an average and start from there.

Just a recommendation, the Xtreme Bullets are excellent plated bullets and they have free shipping in August for orders of $150 or more. It would be worthwhile to pick up some SWC bullets for your .38 and .357 to lessen your costs of target practice. Load data is the basically the same as lead bullets.

[stilly]

Yeah, you'll find lots of contradicting info between the manuals. Check the powder manufacturer's site too and see if they list your bullets. The Lee manual is a compilation of other sources and probably has the most powder and bullet type load data. If I have two or more sources that are all over the place with starting loads, I'll take an average and start from there.

Just a recommendation, the Xtreme Bullets are excellent plated bullets and they have free shipping in August for orders of $150 or more. It would be worthwhile to pick up some SWC bullets for your .38 and .357 to lessen your costs of target practice. Load data is the basically the same as lead bullets.

I have NOTHING new to add since this is pretty much it. The Book of Lee has the MOST load data in it and next year they will be expanding it to include newer powders and what not.

Hornady is slanted towards Hornady, same with Sierra and others that manufacture bullets. Stay away from those unless you only run THEIR bullets. But Lyman and Lee are great and giving you a good dose of all aroundness with Lee being a major compiler of data from all over. Lee has given me a lot of good choices. Stay away from ALL Lyman books durring their first and second printings. They are usually chock full or errors and thigns and they gotta reprint them to correct them, but by the 4th+ printing the errors are almost all gone.

AND as was already said, you will find contradictory information, but it is not really contradictory, it is just how SAFE those manuals wanna go with what they tested. Remember that, they do not test the recipes out with all guns on the market. Sometimes they simply use a receiver and barrel with gauges and all. Not even a real gun that you can buy. SO their results will most likely be different from YOUR results. :\

[krwada]

Load Data

I pretty much use all the data I can lay my hands on. Usually, my starting loads are somewhere near the average ... my max loads are usually somewhere below the lowest published maximum of all the load manuals I have.

I have found:
1. The lowest charge weights are published by Hogdon

2. Lyman 49 edition manual charge weights are near the middle

3. Speer #14 is near the hotter end of the range.

[Bumslie]

I pretty much use all the data I can lay my hands on. Usually, my starting loads are somewhere near the average ... my max loads are usually somewhere below the lowest published maximum of all the load manuals I have.

I have found:
1. The lowest charge weights are published by Hogdon

2. Lyman 49 edition manual charge weights are near the middle

3. Speer #14 is near the hotter end of the range.

Nailed it.

I'll also add that hornady is also notoriously conservative in their data as well. Hornady does however, list alot of powder options per application.

Speer, Lyman, nosler, and Hornady are my go to books. Lee is my last choice.

[Beelzy]

All of them. Think about it, do great chefs only have one cookbook as a resource?
I like books so every bullet brand I load has it's own corresponding manual.

[Kokopelli]

The Alliant powder table for Unique and 357 mag: http://www.alliantpowder.com/reloade...3&cartridge=28

[CodyGT46]

Thanks for all the help everyone.

[jonzer77]

Just to throw you off some more lol. Here is Lyman's data for .357 magnum.

[Dutch3]

I recently ran into a similar issue. I was loading some 9mm and due to having difficulty finding common powders, I decided to try some IMR PB, as there are pistol loads published for it.

I used current Hodgdon load data and loaded some rounds at .1gr below the published maximum for the bullets I was using.

The ammo ran fine in my Camp carbine, but would not cycle a Browning or CZ pistol I tried it in. I looked up the load in my old Lyman 47th, and the load listed by Hodgdon as the MAX load was shown by Lyman as the MIN load.

Live and learn. From now on I will be checking multiple sources.

[jonzer77]

I recently ran into a similar issue. I was loading some 9mm and due to having difficulty finding common powders, I decided to try some IMR PB, as there are pistol loads published for it.

I used current Hodgdon load data and loaded some rounds at .1gr below the published maximum for the bullets I was using.

The ammo ran fine in my Camp carbine, but would not cycle a Browning or CZ pistol I tried it in. I looked up the load in my old Lyman 47th, and the load listed by Hodgdon as the MAX load was shown by Lyman as the MIN load.

Live and learn. From now on I will be checking multiple sources.

As long as you watch for pressure signs, there is nothing wrong with working up to and going past published load data.

[RR.44]

I use the Lyman 49th also, as you can see by the post above there is always gonna be differences from one manual to another.

[BigBronco]

Keep in mind that not all manuals test with the same firearm or test barrel. Each Company tests the components they choose. Mostly anything they manufacture. you will not see data for Speer bullets in a Hornady manual. Lee mostly gathers all the other data and combines it in a book I doubt they actually test any loads.


I tend to rely mostly on the Lyman manual if I simply want to go to one book and not confuse my self with 10 plus hours of research. Then if using a Hornady bullet I just use one of their manuals. Oh I like them little plastic bound caliber dedicated ones a lot too.

[Kokopelli]

Thanks for posting those loading tables, jonzer77.

[stilly]

Hey, where are all the guys saying that you do not need load books since you can find loads on the internetz? Oh, I guess it is hard to type without fingers...

:O