Lyman Cast Bullet Handbook
This is the only publication that covers lead bullets only. A lot of styles in the book are the same or very similar to a lot of our stuff. It's a good place to start. Click on the pic, it's linked to Amazon.
Metallic Cartridge Handloading
We can't emphasize enough how impressive these books are. No matter how long you've been doing this, these are valuable. These are way more than just reloading manuals. Almost everything you have ever been curious about regarding ammo, accuracy, internal and external ballistics and a heck of a lot more is here.
Click on the pic, it's linked to Amazon.
Ideal Loading Handbooks
We've always collected reloading manuals. And than we discovered the old pre-war Ideal manuals. After WWII a lot of information was discontinued in reloading books in favor of the new high velocity cartridges. These pre-war gems are full of original info that is difficult to find today. The info on bullet originality, styles, purposes, diameters, etc. is not found elsewhere and often conflicts with "Cartridges of the World". (Which we value as well)
Well, you don't have to spend years looking for old collectables. Cornell Publishing reproduces all of the Ideal Manuals. All the way back to 1891. And they're pretty cheap.
Click on the picture, it's linked to their web site.
Heeled Bullet Crimp Dies
These guys make crimp dies for the heeled bullet cartridges and then some. Pretty cool stuff. Click on the pic to be taken to their site.
If you are having case bulge problems with auto cartridges, these two machines are an answer to that problem. 9mm and 40 S&W are high pressure cartridges and can swell the bottom portion of the brass case that the sizing die can't quite reach. These are really cool machines that will solve that problem. They are kinda pricey but they work really well. Click on the picture to be taken to their web sites.
Click on the picture. A set of posters will pop up. These were printed in 1936. It's old tech but it still works.
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Click on the picture below and it will convert to a Word document and you can then print it out.
Hodgdon Burn Rate Chart
Click on the picture and you can print it out
Sooo...how many people can claim they were included in a book by the biggest selling author of all time? (Imagine the scene from Titanic where we are standing on the bow, arms out, with the biggest grin)
Page 240
Groove diameters of rifles from 1937 publication. Note the minimum and maximum differences. They didn't have the tool steels for cutting that we have today so their tolerances were looser. But they were working with soft lead and hollow bases so it worked fine. Jacketed bullets didn't necessarily shoot well sometimes so you might have to slug your barrel.
Notice the sentence that all Colt handguns were 1:16" twist
Another great source of applicable loading data to baseline off of when developing loads.
This manual has a lot of data for powder brands not so commonly listed in other publications. It includes information for several older more obscure cartridges as well.
Mic's publications are a plethora of knowledge for the serious shooter and reloader. His books dive into to the finer and more technical points that others gloss over. We like to promote his stuff whenever we have the chance.