Why do I give this book 4 stars, but still give a critical statement about it in the title of my review. Well, for starters, this book is written in magazine style as I call it. The author typically puts out a lot of information in the style of a magazine article. What this means is that as problems crop up, you are ushered to a purchasable solution at your local store. Why is this NOT a good writing style, because it costs you unnecessary money and shows a gross lack of thought and research on the part of the author. It is almost like the author did a lot of research, but has not had a lot of practical experience on the subject that he writes about.
What I did not like about the book at hand was that it recommended full length resizing of the cartridge casing (fine if you are using it in an automatic rifle, NOT necessary at all if you are using a bolt action rifle). Full length resizing stresses the cartridge too much, compared to neck sizing it. This leads to premature cartridge casing failure (if you do not periodically ANNEAL the cartridge case neck) Annealing is NEVER mentioned in the book. What the author recommends is full length cartridge case resizing, no annealing, inspect casing for damage, discard damaged (which could have been prevented by ANNEALING). Thanks, more stuff to BUY. Us old guys neck size cartridges and anneal them every 4th or 5th loading to preserve our brass. BUY is a word used by marketing driven magazine writers, NOT old reloaders who know their stuff. Further more, Once a cartridge is fired in a rifle it has had its headspace perfectly adjusted for that gun. Just neck size it and periodically anneal it by standing the cases up in a pan of water and heating the neck red hot before knocking them over. Then deprime, neck size, reprime and reload them. Cases can last a lot longer and shoot a lot more accurately if this procedure (not mentioned in the book) is followed.
In the books defense, it is a decent read and will give you a lot of good information about reloading your own bullets.
Happy reading, Darian Paganelli