You can purchase the SAAMI ANSI standards for roughly $60 apiece (rifle & pistol). The C.I.P. standard is also available, as is Tribel (advertised as Pa.U.LA.). The Tribel standard on CD runs about $130.00. I don't remember the cost of the C.I.P.
The best wildcat book is "Wildcat Cartridges" by Richard Simmons, published in 1947. I bought mine on eBay.
I agree with the others that Donneley's has many, many errors. Not just small ones either. The Nonte book is limited in usefulness and I seldom refer to it at all. You might want to consider the ECRA Data Viewer. However, many dimensions are incomplete and a few are wrong, but it's constantly being updated.
Regards,
Hockeypuck

Howell's book is the best I've seen, by far. It's kicked Donnelly's off my bookshelf. Donnelly's book gives dimensions based on measurements from one or two sample cases. Howell's book uses dimensions from more definitive references such as SAAMI, CIP, or factory drawings. Some of Donnelly's numbers can, therefore, be misleading. Nonte's book doesn't appear to be in the same league; I've only glanced through it at the library.

I have a copy of Wolfe's 2 volume set on Wildcat Cartridges. I wasn't much impressed with it. Like Donnelly's book, it's lost its spot on my bookshelf. I was planning to trash it, but if you'll cover the postage, its yours for the asking. Send a P.M.

Karl

The CIP CD is available through the Birmingham Proof House in England. You can find it on their catalog page. The price is about $100. There may be other vendors.

The nice thing about Howell's book is that you get data from SAAMI, CIP, Triebel, various factories, and many wildcats all in one book. It will, of course, have some transcription errors in it. I've found one so far, in one of the 9.3x74R drawings; however, for these major cartridges, he provides numbers from multiple sources. He also provides data for sources not readily available. For instance, SAAMI no long provides in their books drawings for cartridges such as the .35 WCF and .33 WCF. Howell has in his collection older SAAMI editions and has taken data from these.

The books SAAMI sells are getting long in tooth. Cartridges for which current SAAMI standards exist, eg. the .405, are not in them.

Which ones best explane the forming processes. ie:necking up, down, forming shoulders, etc...

Howell's is more complete than Donnelly's. I only glanced over Nonte's, so I can't say.