Complete Guide To Handloading by Philip B. Sharpe

I'm currently reading the above guide and was wondering if there's an equally exhaustive work on the subject of handloading but more modern.

Nothing significant has changed other than perhaps more modern automatic loading machines and electronic scales. Don't obsess over the latest and greatest equipment or .01gr powder accuracy initially. Concentrate on safety and record keeping.

On the long gun side many people like the Zediker book, "Handloading for Competition". 

People in the 50's and 60's were turning out hundreds of rounds an hour on Star Progressives and the main things that have changed in single stage loading are the scales and integrated powder dispenser/scale units. 

Safety and concise record keeping should be a goal for all of us. It didn't happen if you didn't write it down.

I forgot to mention that the entire book is available to read online at

http://www.castpics.net/subsite2/ClassicWorks/complete_guide_to_handloading%20-%20sharpe%20-%201937.pdf

Interesting reading from many perspectives.

I have one too. Thoroughly enjoyed reading most, if not all, when I was somewhere between 15 and 19 or maybe taking the whole time.

Biggest problem is that so many of the powders AND bullets covered in there have been out of production for decades. Understandable why you would want something newer. Even something of equal breadth of coverage from 20 years ago would be nice.

But no, there is nothing else out there like it, and I just don't have the initiative/drive to assemble something similar. And NOW would be the time to do it, as I believe that many of the on-line sources are reducing the number of powders they choose to have their software 'bots generate. Even the excellent Alliant reloading .pdf document has changed in that direction since about 1999 or whenever the prior version was out.

Given a $50,000 advance from some publisher, I could probably assemble about the same amount of data--losing some of Sharpe's calibers and replacing them with the ones we have developed since then. Actually, it might wind up about 20% more data.  Some of the chapters oriented towards the home machinists would not need updating but could be dropped... most likely to be replaced with something about GA Precision, Surgeon Actions, the PRS competition and how Tikka rifles seem to do "all that" with little more than a fancy-dancy stock.

AND I kin spell an' grammer eddit better than most publishers I've read lately.

That said, I just don't see anything like "The Complete Guide" being done ever again. Especially since the rest of the shooting press world seems to love to ignore BE shooting of all types. ALL types.  Of course, that's unless I do it. 






That last sentence just MIGHT goad someone suitably qualified to prove my butt wrong!

Actually much of what was in Sharpe's book IS still in print by it is not in one source. In Sharpe's time there wasn't the breadth of products available nor was information as widely available. So it made sense for a time of the depth and breadth Sharpe. I can't see the true need for a book like it today.

GrumpyOldMan wrote:I have one too. Thoroughly enjoyed reading most, if not all, when I was somewhere between 15 and 19 or maybe taking the whole time.

Biggest problem is that so many of the powders AND bullets covered in there have been out of production for decades. Understandable why you would want something newer. Even something of equal breadth of coverage from 20 years ago would be nice.

But no, there is nothing else out there like it, and I just don't have the initiative/drive to assemble something similar. And NOW would be the time to do it, as I believe that many of the on-line sources are reducing the number of powders they choose to have their software 'bots generate. Even the excellent Alliant reloading .pdf document has changed in that direction since about 1999 or whenever the prior version was out.

Given a $50,000 advance from some publisher, I could probably assemble about the same amount of data--losing some of Sharpe's calibers and replacing them with the ones we have developed since then. Actually, it might wind up about 20% more data.  Some of the chapters oriented towards the home machinists would not need updating but could be dropped... most likely to be replaced with something about GA Precision, Surgeon Actions, the PRS competition and how Tikka rifles seem to do "all that" with little more than a fancy-dancy stock.

AND I kin spell an' grammer eddit better than most publishers I've read lately.

That said, I just don't see anything like "The Complete Guide" being done ever again. Especially since the rest of the shooting press world seems to love to ignore BE shooting of all types. ALL types.  Of course, that's unless I do it. 






That last sentence just MIGHT goad someone suitably qualified to prove my butt wrong!

Why not just a supplement to the handbook as it would pertain to BE shooters?  The core of the book is just too classic to do completely again.  Publish it electronically?

The problem with a lot of shooting references that try to be comprehensive is that they don't do what they do with law books--annual updates.  They go in a pocket in the back and get replaced as often as necessary (usually annually). The "pocket part" includes only what is new/changed and references the section number in the outline, which is used like a comprehensive ToC.

One comprehensive book can be pocket part updated for 20 years before a new edition might be deemed necessary. Thus, the wise researcher gets directed to the book and section number, and looks in the pocket part FIRST. Well, we look at the publication date of the pocket part first to make sure it's reasonably current.

e-publishing might work best and save a few trees, and can be made to work with the updates methodology.