Reloading Log

J

Jeffm004

New member
I've been using an excel spread sheet for years. It is becoming less and less useful for what I want so I searched the Newest Excel database. Under Excel -- search personal address books it has (in red) an address book that is pretty handy to modify for a reloading log book. I changed the headings to date, Cal, Pwder, P wt., Bullet, B wt., COAL, Vel, Grp (group size), No. loaded, Notes. Just a little field format changing was required and every column is sortable. I'll likely sort by date/ caliber but every column is sortable.

Some will insist you must record the case and primer type. You could add those. I'm 90% handgun and 45-70. I know what my rifle primers are.

Is there anything else people track? Has it ever amounted to anything, e.g. learning that CCI primers are hard.
 
I made a basic Excel sheet. It has as follows:

Load # (serialized); Date; Cartridge; Quantity; Bullet; Powder (& charge weight); Primer; Notes.

It works for me. I'm not good enough with Excel to create a pivot table. It would be neat if it were able to sort by cartridge, bullet, powder, etc. Oh well. It does what it's needed to do.

At least it's not my old paper notebook log. :p
 
In addition to what you have described, I've included the distance to target and wind and direction [if I happen to be shooting on an outdoor range].

I do find that the primer brand is important because it can be a point of failure. I always want to be able to track what went wrong and why. At this stage of my loading career my points of failure are usually the primer, and it's usually a Tula.

I do keep two sheets, one for the loading data and another for the range results. On the loading tab, the first column is numbered, which is cross referenced onto the "range" tab.

If you do a search on "Load Log" or a variation, you'll find a number of posts, some accompanied by a spreadsheet, that you might want to look at for reference and download.

Good luck. Have fun.
 
There was a time when I kept track of everything, bullets, powder, primers, brass,ect. I have long given that up now with the exception of times fired.
I have 9 rifles now and I have One load for each one I do not hunt other than Yotes in the Winter so All my loads are built for accuracy only. I keep one wt bullet and powder for each load now. 9 different bullets, 3 different primers and 4 powders. Life is much simpler now.
 
I use Excel also. I post OAL, Primer, Bullet Weight, Type, Velocities, Average, Extreme Spread,Standard Deviation, group size.

It's easy to set it once and then use the copy function.
 
I keep a journal. From start to finish, how many times brass resized, what primer, powder, bullet, OAL, tempeture,group size and total round count through the barrel.
 
Handgun is my bread & butter so some info that is helpful for rifle is superfluous for handgun. I keep date, rounds loaded, bullet brand, weight, style, powder, charge weight, COAL, primer (if it is a primer OTHER than CCI non-mag) and I denote head stamp.

That's all I keep for handloading...
But my log is simply dated entries and it reads like a GIGUNDO diary of all my handloading, shooting, range trips, gun acquisitions (and the few that go away also) and I also log the price I have paid for many of my different purchases (bullets, primers, etc) so I can compare trends in prices. Sometimes I will see a price and think "Hey, that looks like a good price!" and I will check the log to see what I paid for it a year back and sometimes I adjust my thinking.

The part of my log I like the best is that I now keep very strict round counts on all of my guns. It does annoy me that guns I buy used (pretty much all I buy these days...) typically don't come to me with a round count, but it annoys me even more than some of my own guns that I got new (before I opened the log!) don't have an accurate round count. Either way, I find it very fun and very interesting -- in very much the same way a motorcyclist looks at his ever-rising odometer as a badge of honor, I do the same with round counts.

Keeping round counts is also one heckuva fine tool for trouble-shooting certain issues. When I have had to fix or tweak an extractor or do some work on a disconnector, my round counts let me know exactly how many flawless rounds I have had since the "fix" which helps me determine which guns are FIXED and which guns are still in the process of being vetted.

The handloading log is as important to me as my press, it helps me duplicate my BEST loads and it also helps me to avoid accidentally repeating loads that weren't very good. But my log of round counts is the part I like best.

I know many folks roll their eyes or their head wants to explode when they even consider the idea, thinking it must be a monotonous pile of work, but it's all in what you make of it. To me it is just another "collecting" kind of hobby, it's just that it is raw data that I am collecting.

My EDC has 6,452 rounds through it. ;) Not that anyone wondered.
 
Timely discussion. I have been researching various software, apps and excel spreadsheets. I, too, have kept a manual paper log since 1989.

I'm now ready to change to a format where I could use my iPhone or iPad to allow me to access my data when I'm away from home. I really couldn't find any software or apps that would work.

Thus, I believe an excell worksheet kept in Dropbox might serve me well.

Does anyone have any other suggestions?
 
I have a log book that has 20+ years of data. I have recently also been using the ammotracker app. Works well for keeping range results along with the load data.
 
This is my load data sheet . It's printed on the front and back of each sheet for a total of four per sheet . I then use a same size paper target with 4 targets on it . After load development I save the data sheet and target together in a binder for future reference . All loads that I find to work well are re-writen in detail and placed in the front of the binder for quick reference .

The comp = comparator measurement , The seating die = micrometer setting or where a standard die is set . I have my non-micrometer seating and crimp dies marked to have reference points I can return to next time .

View attachment Load data sheet #1.pdf
 
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Here's what I came up with but boy, it's a pain to do. Don't know why all of the target didn't show up.
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Attachments

In 1967 I was a sophomore in high school forces to write up lab reports for Biology and later, chemistry.
In 1969 I was a senior in high school in typing and forced to keep my fingers on "home row'.
In 1988 I was hired as a contract engineer to calculate the electrical and thermal stress in 3000 components on radar warming power supply for the tornado jet.
They put an IBM 486 on my desk and told me to do my calculations in Lotus 123. A few months later they insisted on Excel.
My fingers remembered 19 years ago... home row.
I wrote long equations for how much current went through a transistor and buried those equations in the cells of the spreadsheet.
In 1990 I was blowing up my power supply designs, improving them, and blowing them up again. I recorded the data in a lab book. This a a couple other cheap tricks allowed me to market myself.
In 1999 I started handloading and overload work up every 9mm combinations of bullet and powder.
I started entering the data in spread sheets.
I have kept them. They have been handed down from computer to computer to computer.
But the format is too constraining.
Looking at how Ackley wrote up a work up, i can see it is sequential.
In 2003 I started writing up range reports like lab reports [with an objective] and storing them in a Mozilla drafts folder "range reports"
This record works well for 100 yard ranges here in WA state.
In 2007 I started shooting long range out in the sage brush 900 miles from here before each hunting season. I write in a lab book with pen. That info never seems to get stored or transcribed.
 
I use excel as well, but I don't go into as much detail as some do, I have bullet weight, powder type, COAL, grains used, press setup data such as drop tubes and case shuttles used, and velocity average. I also have a cost calculator built into each sheet so I can tell how much per box it costs to load.
I set up a page for each caliber and a main page/index that has my most used loads.
 
There are a couple reasons I don't use a computer for any of my load data . The main reason is I've already wrote it all down when I was at the range and don't want to do it again . The other is computers crash and I'd hate to lose all the data . I've lost all my music once and if not for most being on CD's I would have been screwed .

When I think of all the time and money that goes into load development . Oh man that would suck to lose it all in the blink of an eye .

My binders are either firearm specific , caliber specific , or firearm type (AR) specific . I can easily find all loads by grabbing the right binder . I then have an index and reference tabs in each binder for powders , bullets or often used combo's of components . So far It's worked for me and the only way I lose them is if my house burns down . So far in my life time , computer crashes 3 - houses burned down 0 . ( knock on wood ) :)
 
I thought about the crash part as well, so I keep a backup on a external drive, and a copy on dropbox, from there I can get it no matter where I am.
 
Haha, really!

If you make a virtual log on a computer, you can quite literally copy it a dozen or two dozen times, in two dozen places, in a few minutes, for very low cost or even no cost whatsoever.

If you have your life's work in a dog-eared spiral bound notebook you have -ONE- copy, unless you lose it. Making a duplicate of it is next to impossible. If it starts falling apart at the seams you are headed for a mess. And a "click & search" is not a part of the deal.

I would never think to enter a gathering place of Tibetan monks and suggest they put down their quill & scroll and replace it with an iPad, but here on an internet forum, I would suggest that the spiral bound notebook guys truly could see the advantages of going to the computer for this work.
 
Reloader2, thanks for the ammotracker tip. I see it has not updated to iOS9 yet. It appears to store data on only the iPhone or iPad and not in iCloud. Is that true?
 
The last I heard from them they are working on a cloud version. I'm looking forward to it. Even if I lose this data I have my reloading log on paper. It's just nice to be able to post the targets when working up loads.ImageUploadedByTapatalk1446445148.205508.jpg
 
Is there anything else people track?
Click to expand...

Multiple EXCEL spread sheets such as.
1. Details on what I bought.
2. What I loaded.
3. What I tested.


Has it ever amounted to anything
Click to expand...
1. I know I have spent more than my wife needs to know about.
2. I know how many components I have left.
3. I know loads which work and don't work as well. For example, in 9mm I can sort over 200 test loads to see the combinations that worked best for 10 different bullet types or 6 different powders.
 
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