Quickload

[Vaughan]

I finally go around to buying a copy of this program from Pigeon last week and have been playing with it a little. It has surprised me by being very good at predicting the mv of loads I have been using and have run through my chrony. It has also surprised me by showing some loads I thought were fairly stout actually were not generating the chamber pressures I had feared - I am assuming that if the mv predictions are pretty good the chamber pressure estimates must be sound as well. Most loads, however, were where I would have expected based on published data and "in rifle" testing. Looks like a useful tool - as many others here have already suggested.

I have a question though - does anyone know if/how I can input primer data? I wonder (am unsure but have me suspicions) what effect on chamber pressure switching to magnum primers, for example, will have? Hotter ignition, longer burn, maybe it does nothing to the max pressure or even the pressure curve but it would be interesting to look at if it was possible. Of course, I wouldn't know what to "input" but maybe they have a database I have not found

[Pigeon]

no the primer´s data are not used - probably is the effect between the different manufacture´s too small. BUT I would guess that if you use a magnum primer instead a standard, the difference in the burning rate MAY be completly different - so I would be carefull to go to the calculated limits...

[skeetshot]

That sounds like a good realistic software simulator. Where can I learn a little more about this ?

[Corjack]

That sounds like a good realistic software simulator. Where can I learn a little more about this ?

It is pretty handy, not perfect, but does go in to much more detail than a reloading manual. Here is a link.

http://www.neconos.com/details3.htm

[Pigeon]

Here is an image of the screen



Uploaded with ImageShack.us
plus you get a programme for calculating ballistics

[Vaughan]

I would subscribe to the "handy but not perfect" school as well.

It in no way replaces the usual work up and test approach but does let you "test" different powder and load options before loading up and I think that is helpful. It also warned me that a couple of my loads, which I had worked up to carefully, were into the "red" pressure-wise. I had already suspected they were needlessly too hot and had pulled them last fall but had I owned this before hand I probably would not have gone there in the first place, and would have been safer as a result.

[Explorer]

For bullets like Barnes TSX in my brothers and my R93 300WM I've found the MV (muzzle velocity) to be about 30 m/s - 100 f/s higher over my chrono than what Qload estimates

To make sure that the pressure will not reach the danger zone I always keep an eye on the base expansion on the brass, I simply mark the brass base area with a magic marker before firing a load, afterwards I can clearly see how much chamber contact there has been, when the base start to expand you are on your way into the danger zone

baseexpansion.jpg

primers.jpg