| Reloading - Manuals, Part Two | |
|
||
|
||
|
||
This is part of the About Hunting & Shooting online Reloading Course. Check my Ammo Loading Course Index for links to other articles, and topics to be covered in future additions. Be sure to bookmark it and check back there from time to time, since I'll be adding more as time goes by.
Info Found in
Loading Manuals
Typically,
a loading manual will contain cartridge specs, often accompanied by a drawing
of the cartridge with standard dimensions. These may vary a bit from one manual
to another, but the differences are negligible in most cases. Other info may
include a brief history of the cartridge and/or recommendations for its use,
and will always include load data, i.e. powder charge (by weight, in grains
for we Americans) by powder type and bullet type & weight.
Some manuals contain much more than this, and some a bit less. Some will include "how-to" and other types of info, while others will only give the "meat & potatoes." The thing to remember is that the folks writing these manuals have some interest in selling their products, and will often do their best to make you believe you need something that you do not. Some tools and procedures are "musts" to the reloader, and some are not. I will do my best in the course of this Course to help the uninitiated differentiate between the two.
The most valuable information in any manual is the load data. Since that is also the most critical, it's always wise to double- and triple-check that you're reading it properly, and to cross-check it against one or more other sources.
This
is a picture of a page from my copy of the Lyman 47th Reloading Handbook. It
gives comments on their experiences with this cartridge, recommendations of
powder and bullet types, and lists what test components were used, along with
specs for the gun used... also visible is load data for this cartridge for one
bullet style, for eight different powders. Data for other bullet weights/styles
appear on following pages.
(photo by Russ Chastain, all rights reserved)
Typical load data includes both starting loads and maximum loads, giving pressure and velocity for each powder/bullet combination listed. Be aware that velocities (and pressures) given are only guidelines, as every manual will tell you, and as everyone who's tested their loads with a chronograph will testify.
Assuming that any load you've worked up will produce the same velocities and pressures as those given in the manual is a mistake. For instance, a load I worked up in .338 Winchester Magnum, which I expected to produce 2800-2850 fps (feet per second), instead produced an average velocity of 2755 fps when fired through my Shooting Chrony. I have no complaints about the load (it's the most accurate load I've found for this gun, and certainly enough for whitetails), but now I know what to realistically expect from it, in terms of trajectory and downrange performance.
The dimensions are also useful, to help ensure that you stay within acceptable tolerances. Brass stretches and flows when fired and resized, and will occasionally require trimming. Recommended uses of the cartridge are also helpful, as they help the greenhorn determine the capabilities of their chosen cartridge, i.e. whether their .223 is a worthwhile deer hunting rifle (the answer is "no"). In this same vein, the how-to info found in some manuals such as the Lyman books is also helpful to folks with less knowledge of reloading -- and we all started out knowing nothing about it.
Reloading manuals
all provide useful information, the scope of which varies from one manual to
the next, but the bottom line is the same -- they are a vital part of any reloader's
equipment. To forego the wealth of knowledge they contain, in favor of going
it alone, is to invite disaster.
Manuals, Part One - Why Use Manuals?
-Russ Chastain
