[Archie]

Will make one crazy, Mr. Don't Play.

Okay, Scott Riqui beat me to it. I already wrote this.

I have the latest Lyman, Hornady, Hodgdon, Speer and Vitavourhi loading books on my shelf. They are next to some older books by the same companies and some others.

They will make you crazy because what one book lists as the beginning load, another will list as the absolute-don't-exceed-go-back-you-fool maximum load. When one starts examining the fine print, one finds some components are different. Different brand of bullet, different type (e.g., swaged or cast) of bullet, different type of primer, different firearm or test barrel and so on. Not to mention different types, manufacturers or styles of pressure test equipment.

Your Lyman book is excellent. I have one and refer to it often. I just happen to have the Hornady book close this time.

One should always begin low and work up, noting if the firearm objects in any way. This would include difficult extraction or ejection, what seems to be excessive recoil, damage to cases, the top strap of the revolver coming off and so forth.

Seriously, most 'overloads' will not cause a handgun or rifle to 'explode'. What they will do is to wear your firearm out quickly. And usually they don't shoot well, either.

If your loads conform to the Lyman description, you are probably all right. As I said previously, it's probably not a dangerous load at all.

Lord knows the first time I fired one of my own reloads I flinched so hard I'm not sure I hit the butts (thinking, "Did I do this right? Am I sure?"). But, nothing blew up and I continued. So will you.