I was thinking of buying this book through a mail order catalog. Is it any good? Is there good info, tips, and troubleshooting? What do you think of it? It doesn't contain load data, does it?

It is informative on the "how to" basics of reloading and bullet casting, plus it has a few good formulas in it for things like reduced loads and calculating energy from velocity.

It does have load data in it for most popular calibers but I rarely use it because unless the data has been updated since my copy was printed the data will in alot of cases conflict with more recently published data.

This book is a total waste of paper. Poorly written, poorly edited, and all the load data is lifted directly from powder manufacturers' FREE load pamphlets. I guess that info is public domain, so it could be included in the book. No point in Richard Lee wasting his time doing any real research. After reading the book, I wouldn't trust any data generated by him anyway.

In this book, Lee badmouths other brands of reloading equipment, shamelessly touts his stuff as the best, and regales the reader with useless stories of how he has conducted dangerous "experiments" (my dad would have called it "goofing off") to illustrate just how dangerous reloading can be. I especially like the part about purposely loading a .22-250 cartridge above maximum safe pressures, ducking under a table to avoid being killed if the rifle blew up (evidently he didn't care if he lost his hand), and then blowing a hole in the windshield of his '72 Barracuda (which his insurance company refused to cover, he then informs us). I'm not sure what I was supposed to learn from that story.

Perhaps the most telling part of the book, and the only part that shed any light on anything, was when Dick Lee talks about how most competitor's reloading equipment is "overbuilt" (whatever that means), and you needlessly pay more for cast iron presses than aluminum. He then states that the reason everyone reloads is to save money, right?

That explains why all of his company's products are junk, but cheap.

In short, there is nothing in this book that can't be found elsewhere in a more readable and less commercial format. As for the reloading process itself, he tells you how to use HIS equipment. That's it. He even regurgitates the instruction manuals from some of the equipment verbatim. For someone who has never loaded a cartridge before, and has no idea how to do it, after reading his instructions, they'd still have no idea how to do it.

Save the money, buy a decent book from Speer, Hornady, Nosler, Sierra, Hodgdon, Vihtavouri, Norma, Lapua, Barnes, Swift, A-Square, etc... Forget this trash.

If you think I'm exagerrating, get the book, read it, then be prepared to be extremely disappointed. You've paid money for nothing more than a Lee advertisement.

The book is about the same quality as most other Lee products: The Lowest of the Low.

Maybe that's why everywhere I see it for sale, it's at half price. Hey, you reload to save money, right? Might as well start saving money on your reloading manuals too...