Reloading for Handgunners Paperback – November 21, 2011

"Reloading For Handgunners" is really a book intended for the novice or beginner. Patrick Sweeney does a nice job of introducing the reader to the world of reloading. Reloading is a great hobby - but one that must be entered into seriously and safely. Sweeney makes all the necessary safety notes, but without lecturing the reader or making the book seem like lawyers edited it. I liked the writing style, which I found to be conversational and educational - not condiscending or highly opinionated. Opinions are offered of course - otherwise the book would be of little value. But they are not presented in a "my way or the highway" type of way.If you are an experienced reloader, you may not find too much in this book that you can learn from, aside from some interesting cases and stories here and there. The book is really intended for the person new to reloading and it does a very nice job of introducing you to it. In addition to technical information and advice, there is plenty of interesting history and "did you know..." information in this book. I found that made the reading very enjoyable. You can get through this entire book in two evenings easily - but you'll want to refer to it again and again.Sweeney gives the reader very good insight to most of today's popular handgun calibers. Not just tips about loading them, which he does... but also a nice background lesson on the caliber itself. The chapter about powders is particularly well written. It provides education and information along with very important safety considerations.I am just getting back into reloading after years of absence. I found "Reloading For Handgunners" to be a perfect refresher for me, reminding me of many important little details I've not thought about in years - and making me excited to get started doing it again!

Mr. Sweeney is a prolific writer who specializes in handguns and reloading. This book is a synopsis of his many articles pertaining to the special considerations pertaining to reloading for handguns. While it is not exactly a "step-by-step" guide that will hold a new reloader by the hand, it does cover the fundamentals of producing safe, reliable ammunition. The first part of this book covers the process in a depth that the handgun reloader will find useful. It provides greater depth than other more generalized books aimed at the beginner which also cover rifle and shotgun reloading. By limiting the scope to handguns, both beginners and more advanced reloaders will benefit from his experience and advice.The second part examines the most common handgun cartridges reloaded today. While the steps to reload them might be similar, each one has special characteristics that must be considered by the conscientious reloader. For example, the vagaries of the 357 Sig are very different from the characteristics of the 45 ACP.If I were to offer one criticism, it is that while he is generous with his coverage of cartridges and different bullets, he is somewhat skimpy in his treatment of gunpowder. Specifically, while he goes into detail matching the most suitable bullet for a given task in a specific caliber, he doesn't provide the same insights into powder selection. This would have been of substantial interest to me and the cursory treatment of the subject left me wanting.All told, Mr. Sweeney's experience and conversational style make this an enjoyable and informative reference. I would recommend it highly.

Most reloading books and manuals cover both rifle and handgun with a heavy leaning towards rifle. I bought this book because it exclusively covers handgun reloading. The first 115 pages are nothing special and consist of similar information in other books on reloading. For example, essential equipment, brass, primers, bullets, dies, and so forth, are most of the topics. However, the rest of the book, pages 116 thru 222, consists of 16 short chapters, each one exclusively devoted to one handgun cartridge/caliber. It is this portion of the book that caters to the handgunner. However, I would not consider much of the material in these chapters as "must read" material, but it is interesting material. I did enjoy reading it. One exception is that the chapter on 40 caliber is absolutely must read material if you shoot 40's, ESPECIALLY GLOCK 40 caliber. I see that the low price on Amazon is currently $6.99 + S&H. The cover price of $28 is outrageous since the print is large, there is a lot of empty white space, and there are lots of pictures, many of which do not add any explanatory value. They are just filler. But it is definitely worth the $6.99 or a few dollars more. So at this price I do consider it a must read!

Very good book.Not a reloading book, so not so many recipe or load description. But lot more information about popular caliber and a lot of reference on every aspect of handgun reloading. Not just technical as many book and more important, full of experience and usefull information based on it. It's like having a coach right beside us.Thanks Mr Sweeney.

As a novice about to embark on re-loading, I found this most informative. The author used a lot of 'real life' anecdotes to get his points across. I have read a lot of technical manuals but wanted something that would fill in the 'how do I do it' gaps. This certainly went along the lines that I wanted. It did have items in that I wasn't interested in but all books have that. It was also a very readable book that I found I could just sit down and go through. Excellent reading.

exactly that ,the reloader bibleon the bench with me at all times,a must have for sure.should have three hole so you could insert it into a binder

There could have been more load data included. Some of the bullets mentioned aren't even available. Sweeney is a good writer, and i normally love his stuff, but it seemed like a half hearted effort on his part this time around. Price was good and delivery was fast

VERY WHELL EXPLAINED FOR START TO RELOAD JP NADEAU