Sunday, February 13, 2011

Speer # 14 Reloading Manual


Speer # 14 Reloading Book

Speer # 14 Loading Manual

There are many loading books out there and for the most part they contain a lot of good info. Speer has been producing loading manuals for a long time and in 4/07 they came out with the number 14. It has been reprinted a couple of times indicating its popularity. There is a good reason for the many copies that were and are still being sold.



Page from Speer Manual showing details of cartridges




It has 1149 pages full of must read material for the advanced and beginner alike who want to handload their ammo. It covers all of the modern cartridges that are in production as of the time that it was written and covers a few of the odd ball numbers such as the 9 mm Largo. The history and description of each cartridge is extremely complete and covers any item that you are likely to run in to. For certain cartridges such as the 32-20 and 45-70 it goes into different levels of loads for the guns that were produced many years ago as well as modern weapons. I can tell you that a lot of hard work and research went into this book. They have good drawings and dimensions of all of the cartridges listed which in itself is a valuable asset. It goes into all of the dos and don’ts of reloading. Safety and problem issues are also dealt with in detail. If you are having a reloading problem chances are the answer is somewhere in the Speer book. Of course the data is for Speer bullets and they wisely advise the reader to reduce a little if another brand of bullet is substituted. Since they are part of the same company they recommend RCBS loading products and molds which is another quality brand.



View of RCBS chronograph
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1 comment:

To the Board of Directors,

Gentlemen I`am writing to present you with an idea that i think you may possibly find advantageous to your company. As i`am sure you are aware there is a great interest in whats called "Cowboy Action" shooting in this country and more and more guns of yesteryear are being resurected by the companies that make reproduction firearms.
The sport is growing constantly and the gun makers are constantly looking for ways to take even more advantage of this ever growing market. Guns like the Henry rifle,Spencer carbine, Colt and Remington conversion revolvers and the Colt 1872 Open Top and others are on the market and doudtless other guns of history will be made in the future.
The arms makers try to be as authenic as possible in their copies but one thing keeps them from being "true" copies.The majority of these guns are being made in calibers that the original guns were never made in.The Henry, Spencer,the majority of early Colts were made in rimfire calibers. Ammunition that has`nt been made by American companies since the 1920`s and early 30`s.But with the resurgence in interest in the old guns of our history and boost in ammo sales that go along with it i think it is time to resurect the original ammo these guns used as well. I ask you to think about it and concider this.
The new guns are generally offered in 2 and sometimes 3 caliber options, none of which were ever used in the originals to begin with. If the original rimfire calibers were offered as an addtional caliber option and the ammo for those calibers were available i believe both the guns and ammo sales would skyrocket.
Authenticity is what it is all about with the cowboy action crowd and the collectors and other shooters of these guns.What could be more "authenic" that having a repro in it`s original
chambering rather than a caliber that never was used in the original? Not to mention the fact that if ammo were available once again people that own originals like myself would love to be able to shoot them as well.
i believe that if arrangements could be reached between the gun makers and your company in that they would make the guns with their original calibers as options and you in turn make the ammo available i think it would be a boost in sales for both. I ask both of you to do this.
The gun makers offer the guns in their original calibers as a limited trial. You in turn make a limited run of the ammo. you both market the availablity of guns and ammo and see how it works. I believe you will find a gold mine has been discovered.
About 20 yrs ago i wrote a letter to your company asking that you concider making various rimfire ammo available again for people like myself who own antiques and would love to shoot them if ammo were available.My letter made it into the hands of someone { can`t recall who}
but he was a higher up in the company at the time.
He wrote me back saying he personally thought i had a good idea and he had presented my idea before the board and they turned it down saying they did`nt believe there was enouht of a market out there
Well things have changed quite a lot since then and i think that my idea might be worth concideration once again. I hope you agree as well.

Sincerely,
Robert Heins