Manual Dichotomy

[WESHOOT2]

Please remember, ALL manuals are GUIDES ONLY.
They do NOT provide absolutes; they provide evidence of what the test equipment delivered using specific components in a specific environment.

They did not test your stuff, not your gun, your components, your process, at your test location; they tested THEIR stuff.

So be safe, start low, and recognize that your stuff is different than theirs.

 

[Unclenick]

Amen. Even if every component brand or model the manual authors used match your own, the lot numbers are unlikely to be the same. I've seen pressure change 10% just based on which lot of a power I had. Primer makers are also known to change their formulations without telling anybody. Brass makers have altered their weight and internal dimension (Winchester, especially, over the last 20 years) without changing the headstamp. Bullet designs get altered (note the length changes in some of the Hornady A-max bullets in the late 1990's; note the greater length of the new Sierra Palma bullet).

So, assume nothing. Manuals are a ballpark suggestion.

 

[Brian Pfleuger]

How true this is.... especially when you realize that one manual will have start loads higher than another manuals max load.

Case in point:

357sig 125gr JHP, Alliant says start at 7.75gr, max 8.6 Power Pistol.... Sierra says MAX load of 7.5gr Power Pistol.... Hornady says 8.7 max....

Yeah, start low.

 

[reloader28]

The old man that started me reloading has an OLD Lyman manual that he's had since the beginning of time. Its mostly all hes ever used.

I snagged it from him one day and compared it to my Lyman (48'th I think).

Some of the loads were the same, most were different. Some were WAY different. If I remember right, the 243 min in his book was the max in mine! There were others to.

I finally got him to compare the books and understand why he has had a few problems. The last couple months he's been down quite a bit looking for new loads in my books.

He finally decided the next time he goes to town he's gonna buy a couple new books.

 

[jdscholer]

This is really something to consider when we might want to put someone elses loads through our guns or vice-versa. jd