My load data sheet: Critique it

[ryanmattes]

@Stopsign32v

One suggestion on the top 2 rows

Make - style - alloy
Weight - diameter - lube/jacket

Make/mold are essentially the same. It's either a Hornady ###### (brand and model) or a Lyman 454424 (mold)

Style is built in to the bullet, you can't change it. RNFP, or SWC, or whatever.

Alloy is either the alloy, or the BHN, or empty for commercial

Weight varies, might be a range.

Diameter you size to

Lube/jacket (bad name, not sure what else to call it) is whether it's jacketed, or plated, or coated, or wax lubed

Those 6 fields give you a lot of info and a lot of flexibility.

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[Ford SD]

3006 Garand For Garand sn # Test 1
Bullet noe 311299 cast load date july 4 2021 Fired date
weight 208 g Primer CCI 200 LR lot F24P
Air cooled or WD Lube Type Bc 0.377
Brass lot 3 weight brass Length brass OAL 3.200 +-
Powder IMR 4895 Lot 1012915-8003

Some of what I use

[Markopolo]

I like it !!!! nice work...

I also love that JM marlin in 44 cal.. what a sweetheart!

marko

[C.F.Plinker]

I don't save the targets themselves. Instead I measure the center to center distance for the two shots that were the farthest apart for the 5 shot group and record that. Then I measure the center to center distance for the best 4 out of 5 and the best 3 out of 5 to get rid of any flyers. This is easily done by setting the boolit diameter on a digital caliper, zeroing the caliper, then measuring the outside to outside of the holes. Another way is to stick a piece of cardboard onto the zero end of a ruler with the boolit diameters marked on it and again measure outside to outside. I put 5 aiming points on the back of a 20 x 24 target. This gives me plenty of room for notes etc on the target.

I also measure pressure ring expansion for every shot as they are fired and calculate the average for each string at the range.

The sheet I take to the range has stop points written on it. These are the maximum velocity and maximum change in the average and maximum pressure ring expansion with respect to the values for the starting load. If I hit those stop points I stop realizing that I will probably have to pull down some loads when I get back home.

I usually load from 90% of max to the max load in 1% steps. The most interesting one was loading 158 grain XTPs for my rifle. Hornady suggests 15 grains to 16.5 grains with the velocity of 1750 fps from a 18.5 inch barrel. I matched components and barrel length. On the 15.2 grain charge I got 1776 fps. Time to stop. The 15.2 grain group was half the size of the 15 grain group. i'm happy with a max (for that rifle) load using the minimum amount of powder. I loaded what was left in that can for the 357 realizing that I will have to work up a new load with the new can of powder.

[Wayne Smith]

Extreme spread is the difference between your high and low velocities. The mean is the same as an average. The standard deviation is the amount of variability around the mean, or how much each number varies from the mean. A high standard deviation means you have numbers all over the place, a low standard deviation means that the numbers are nicely clustered around the mean.

[JoeJames]

Oh well, any system is better than noting at all. I have kept notes in my notebook for a long time and it sure helps me. Especially my targets.

[mdi]

Shooting cast bullets I add lube and sized diameter. When shooting out doors I occasionally add weather conditions (temp, sunny-overcast, rain/mist, etc.). I also add my "condition" (I have "bad eye" days and "blah" days when accuracy is greatly affected)...

Of course I include the gun used but I have not found cylinder gap measurement to be of much use when shooting one of my 9 revolvers I load for load data. I have compared loads gun to gun mainly for fun/my info., but that goes into the individual gun's file...

Decide what info is best for you to decide on "The Load" for a particular gun and you can duplicate it easily...