Book Review: The Practical Guide to Reloading

The Challenge
There are plenty of books, articles, web posts and nasty rumors regarding the "best" reloading methods. Much of that information has simply been rehashed again and again, with little actual scientific method being applied to it. How does the new or even experienced handloader tell good advice from birdcage lining?

The Author
Nathan Foster is a New Zealander who may be the most data-driven hunter and shooter on the planet. He is a prolific author and blogger whose research on terminal ballistics is staggering. Foster has taken over 7,500 head of game animals in the steep New Zealand landscape and painstakingly records the results of every shot and subsequent necropsy. Apart from his exhaustive wound research, Nathan performs accurizing and load development services for customer rifles—a task that has given him a tremendous knowledge base of which handloading methods work, and which ones don't.

The Book
"The Practical Guide to Reloading" is the fourth book in Foster's Long Range Hunting Series—all of which are worth adding to your collection. Available in a 328-page paperback or as an eBook, I consider this one of the best books on the market for learning how to assemble extremely consistent and accurate handloads with minimal effort. How-to books can be very dry and painful to read—but this one flows well and is easy to read; Foster's writing style is such that you feel like he's explaining it to you standing at your bench rather than in some professorial tone. The book features valuable information for the beginner as well as the experienced loader; I've been handloading for 20+ years and I learned plenty.

The Price
The paperback ($34.95) and the eBook ($29.95) are both available from Foster's site.

The books don't ship from New Zealand so you won't wait more than a week for them to land in your mailbox.

The Call
This is a great book on handloading and I don't think you'll be disappointed if you add it to your library. The money you'll save in wasted powder, primers, and projectiles will pay for this tome in no time.