I am going to start reloading my own ammunition soon for target practice mostly. I was wonering if anyone who knows of any good textbooks that can help me get started with it.
Thanks,
Any manual will get you going in the right direction. Most of the front of the manuals have a guide on reloading. If you use those and the reloading forum on this website, you will have most of what you need.
When I started out, I bought the 5 major manuals. I read them and decided that most of the information was available online. It is good to have a manual but not needed.
I would just start reading the reloading section on this forum and a few others.
I would say to start with the ABC's of reloading. It's a good primer of information that you need to get started. If you just start with a reloading manual all the stuff in it makes no sense and even if it did, you'd have no clue why you are doing the things you do.
Zediker's Handloading for Competition is an excellent reloading book. His writing is kind of hard to read, takes few passes sometimes to understand what he is saying, but a lot of good info. Here is a link to his book http://www.zediker.com/books/handloading/hlmain.html
As was mentioned above the reloading section of Snipers Hide is an excellent place to gather information. I had been reloading for a few years when I found Snipers Hide, and it has helped me out reading the reloading posts.
The best manuals I have found have been Lyman's latest edition, as well as Hornady's. Hornady is biased towards Hornady components, but it's great if you use them. Same goes for any of the other major brands though.
Read everything you can get your hands on. From the reloading sections here, to the reloading manuals that each bullet maker puts out, Speer, Winchester, Lee, Barnes, Hornady, Sierra...etc.
In the reloading game, the more educated you are, the better off you will be.