Lyman 50th edition worth it.

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BondoBob

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Is the Lyman 50th edition worth it.

I thought I'd start a new thread in this. I already have the Lee 2nd Edition. The ABC's of reloading is on the way as is the Lyman Load Data Book Revolver.

Would there be any new usable information in the Lyman 50th edition? At this time I'm only intending to load 38/357, after that 44spl.
 
BondoBob

Yes! If you have never read an edition then this is a MUST read. The books you have are really good. I especially enjoy the Lee. But the Lyman has a chapter in metalurgy that is well above my chemistry knowledge level. Spend the bucks, education is never expensive.
 
I have always had several loading manuals, and the Lyman manual was always in the group of books I used. I like that the Lyman manual tells you the most accurate loads, best powders, and pressures of given loads. That said, I used the Sierra and Hornady manuals far more than the Lyman manual.
 
Lyman has been doing reloading since they were Ideal, tools, dies, molds, and more almost as long as there have been metallic cartridges to reload.

What they don't know about reloading hasn't been figured out yet. ;)

For the old stuff I shoot, my most used manual is the LYMAN 45th edition (1970) While I haven't read it, I don't see the 50th edition being any less useful.
 
Ok, I think I'll pick one up.

Are they all different enough that I'm going to end up with Sierra and Hornady too? I'll get them all if I need to but I want to digest them one at a time.
 
I have Lee, Lyman, Sierra and Hornady books, and all are good. I find myself using the Lee and Hornady books the most. I think the Lyman is the first one I bought, to learn about handloading.
 
The Lyman manual is worth it in my opinion. I bought it on Kindle so I can use the manual from where ever I am and do not have to carry it with me. I think it was $19.99 on Kindle
 
Are they all different enough that I'm going to end up with Sierra and Hornady too? I'll get them all if I need to but I want to digest them one at a time.
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If you're using Hornady and Sierra bullets, you'll probably want them. Bullet makers put out manuals with their bullets in them. Lyman and others may list specific bullets, or may not.

While there will be considerable overlap, different manuals list different powders as well. It really comes down to what the people doing the testing wanted to use, and had on hand.

Also, different manuals will show you different results in different test guns. They are useful guidelines.

If, for instance 2 manuals say X.xgr is max and another says Y.xgr is max, they can all be completely correct, because the loads were tested in different guns. Different guns are, ...different.
 
I have eleven different manuals on the shooting bookshelf. The Lyman is the goto. Even with much of the info avaliable online (Alliant and Hodgdon are worth knowing about), I like having the books.
Pete
 
It will be a good addition. You cannot have too much reference material for reloading. I have Speer, Hornady, Lyman, Nosler, Barnes, Sierra and Hodgdon all readily available, and I have a library of older manuals going back into the 70’s. If you are loading a specific brand bullet, it is good to have their manual. I will say it again; you cannot have too much reference material for reloading.
 
You can download the Sierra manual app. It is $5 per year and it is their entire manual. It also gets updated regularly. So whenever Sierra has new data to publish, you don't have to wait for the new papetanual to come out.
 
44 AMP said:
If, for instance 2 manuals say X.xgr is max and another says Y.xgr is max, they can all be completely correct, because the loads were tested in different guns. Different guns are, ...different.
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Lyman doesn't work up ballistics in guns. They use pressure barrels. They have a test range in the back of their factory in Middletown, Connecticut, and they have two or three people who work basically full-time on just load testing.
 
I don't know what they are doing today, but in the past Lyman used a combination of "universal receiver" and actual guns. Some cartridges got fired from the universal receiver (rifle, mostly) and some, pistol, mostly were fired from commercial guns.
 
Lyman doesn't work up ballistics in guns.
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When I look at my Lyman manual, there are several loads that were tested in rifles. THe loads tested in rifles rather than pressure barrels do not have pressure info associated with them.
 
Update: Well, I picked up the Lyman 50th at Cabelas. Wow!. Yeah, full of great information and definitely goes deeper than my Lee manual. Thanks again for all the advice on getting this.
 
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