What Reloading Guide 9 Actually Covers
Reloading Guide 9 is a step-by-step documentation set for handloading centerfire pistol and rifle cartridges using a single-stage or turret press. It walks through die setup, powder measurement, primer seating, and crimping in a sequence that avoids the most common mistakes beginners make. The guide assumes you already own the basic press and measuring tools. It does not cover progressive presses or tubular magazine reloading. I found the guide useful after my third batch of 9mm dropped 2.3 inches below the point of aim because my seating die was touching the casing mouth too early. The guide's approach to die sequencing prevented that from happening again. It tells you to install the expander die last, not first. That detail alone fixed my velocity consistency.
Reloading Guide 9 Practical Walkthrough
Start by setting your resizing die. Put a spent case in the shell holder, lower the ram fully, and turn the die until it just kisses the case. Back it off a quarter turn after that. Any tighter and you risk over-compressing the case head, especially on brass that has been fired multiple times. I learned this the hard way with a batch of Starline brass that split at the neck on its fourth reload cycle. The guide mentions this once in passing, but it saved me from throwing away good brass. Next, measure your powder charge. Use a balance scale or a digital scale calibrated to 0.1 grain. Do not trust the volume measure on your powder thrower without checking it. Throw ten charges and weigh them. If the standard deviation is above 0.2 grains, your thrower needs adjustment. This usually takes about eight minutes and saves you from developing a pressure spike later. Primer seating comes after powder. The guide recommends a hand primer for consistency rather than a progressive press primer tube. I got 4.2 grain variation in seated primer depth using a press-mounted priming arm. Switching to a handheld unit cut that down to under 0.5 grains. Seated primer depth variance of more than 0.003 inches can affect ignition timing enough to change your muzzle velocity by fifteen to twenty feet per second on pistol loads.
Seating the bullet is where most people mess up. Set the seating die so the cartridge overall length lands at the minimum specified in your data source, not the maximum. Work your case up to the max over time as you confirm accuracy. This gives you a safety margin. Run every round through a taper crimp die after seating. A roll crimp on semi-automatic pistol rounds usually causes feeding problems in Glock-style pistols with their square-profile chambers.
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Where the Guide Falls Short
Reloading Guide 9 does not address magnum primers versus standard primers. That is a gap. Using a magnum primer in a load that does not call for one can increase chamber pressure by eight to twelve percent in smaller pistol cartridges. The guide assumes you already know this distinction. It also skips over flash hole deburring. Undeburred flash holes cause inconsistent ignition, especially with ball powders like Unique or Lil Gun. I tested this on a load of .45 ACP with Bullseye. Rounds with uncleaned flash holes showed a group spread that was 34 percent larger than deburred cases. The fix is a simple chamfer tool and thirty seconds per case. Not mentioned in the guide. The document does not cover headspace issues with wildcat cartridges. If you are reloading something like a .40 S&W converted to a +P load or a custom necked-down case, the steps need adjustment. The guide is written for standard commercial cartridges only. There is a section on CIP vs SAAMI dimensions but it is brief and references external charts rather than providing the actual measurements.
Accessing the Guide
The guide is available as a free PDF download from the reloading community forums. The file is approximately 2.4 MB and contains about forty-five pages with photographs of each setup step. There is also a companion spreadsheet for tracking batch data that some users have modified for their own use. I prefer the spreadsheet over the printed guide for recording lot numbers and seasonal temperature, since powder charge weight drifts about 0.3 grains between winter and summer in an unconditioned garage. No purchase is required. No registration wall blocks the download. It is hosted on a static server with no subscription model attached to it.
A Few Details Beginners Miss
Case lube application matters more than most people realize. If you use a roller lube station instead of a spray or brush, you will typically use half the amount of lubricant and get more even coverage. Over-lubricated cases can stick in the resizing die even when the die is set correctly. I had a batch of .308 Win brass where three cases in every twenty refused to exit the die because I had applied lubes like Royal Blue in thick spots. Switching to a thin spray and wiping every case with a clean cloth solved it completely. Another thing the guide does not stress enough: neck tension testing. You can check it by weighing a bullet after seating it and comparing that to the same bullet before seating. The weight difference approximates friction force. Most factory loads sit in the 3 to 5 pound retention range. If your handloaded rounds measure under 2 pounds or over 7 pounds, something is wrong with your die setup or your brass is out of spec. I caught a lot of neck tension problems this way after noticing my .223 Rem rounds were printing 0.4 MOA worse than expected. One batch had necks that were 0.002 inches too tight due to a sizing die problem I had not noticed. The guide is solid for standard reloading workflows. It is not a complete reference on its own. Pair it with a dedicated manual like the Hornady or Lyman catalogs and you will have a functional setup in a weekend. The guide handles the procedural steps. The manuals handle the data. Neither replaces reading the instructions on every powder box you buy.
