Any suggestions for the "best" pistol reloading manual? Thanks,

Pick a bullet or a powder manufacturer and look at their load data.

If looking at how to load for a pistol cartridge the Lyman Reloading Handbook, ABC's of Reloading, Reloading for Handgunners are good places to start. There are also hundreds of YouTube videos on howtos.

Depends if you want a 'how to' manual or reloading data. The best instructional book is Modern Handloading by George Nonte. Although out of print it can be found for sale on Amazon. The book also covers rifle and shotshell reloading procedures. A 'must' book for those new to reloading, IMHO.

If you are not looking for how-to, then I just buy one of the Load Books for every pistol caliber I need.

They are really not that expensive and I can cross-reference at a glance.

Load Books

If you are interested in velocity numbers, the Speer manuals are useful as they measure velocity from “real” handguns. Most manuals collect velocity data from pressure barrels and the numbers don’t relate to “real” guns.

Once you learn how to assemble the ammo you will still have a need for good data.

I would recommend at least buying the following as a minimum.

1. Lyman -
2. Speer -
3. Hornady

Powder specific
IMR and Accurate

The Speer manual is the gold standard. I don't know about the Lyman manual, haven't used one in years. I am becoming increasingly skeptical of the Hornady manual as I have found loads that do not work well. I have also found the correlation of charge weights in similar cartridges i.e. 458 Win versus Lott is very consistent with the Speer manual and much less so with the Hornady. I'm not saying I wouldn't own a Hornady manual, I do and I will continue to but experience has taught me the Speer data is more reliable. Another possibility, Loadbooks from Loadbooks USA or Midway etc. Some good pressure tested data available on the interwebs mostly from powder manufacturers. Beware of data on the interwebs from non-credible sources.

Thanks for the info. I have been loading 50 years, but want to do more in the pistol arena. I wii get a Speer Manual since the one I have is an antique!