Thread: Notes for New and Newish Hand Loaders from an Old Fudd

Greetings.

Post 6 Record Keeping, Load Management and What's Next.

Record Keeping.
Early on I kept no records. There was one rifle in the cupboard, a No 1 .303 and one load, 180 grain Norma soft point boat tail over 34 grains of AR2201 in CAC cases and CCI 200 primers. In time the .303 changed to a .308 but the load was similar. Norma 180 grain soft point over 37 grains of AR2201 in CAC cases with CCI 200 primers. In late 1979, armed with a Speer Handbook, a can of DuPont IMR4064 and some new WW Super cases I actually worked up a load. I had made the transition from a re loader to a hand loader the need for some sort of record system became obvious. Being a draughtsman at that time a quick form was whipped up with copies printed off that have been in use ever since. The form includes columns for date loaded, number loaded, projectile, powder, powder charge, case, times loaded, primer and notes. The notes column is becoming a little crowded these days and more data is being crammed into the other columns like powder lot. The form in on A4 and in landscape format. I also started keeping targets shot (actually the center trimmed down to A4) background notes and hard copies of load data downloads Handloader load data etc, etc, etc. This is all stored in ring binders, 6 currently, on a shelf next to my loading bench. I should really do some editing and scan a back up copy perhaps this winter or if the lock down lasts longer than we hope.
Once again this is my system and your will almost certainly differ. If I was starting now I would probably use an Excel spreadsheet. The important thing is to have one and record as much as possible as carefully as possible.

Load Management.
The best hand load record keeping system in the world is useless if you can't match the cartridges with it. As additional rifles have appeared in my rifle cupboard, often more than one for cartridge, keeping track of whats for what and whats in it has become more complicated. This is how I do it and it works most of the time. I have an awful lot of those flip top plastic 50 cartridge boxes. Each rifle has its own set of boxes marked for the rifle and box number and my loading records show which box the loads are stored in. As a back up there is a slip of paper taped under the lid with the load data on it. Each box has cases with one head stamp but two boxes with the same load will normally have cases with different head stamps but the same weight to stop mix ups as one box is finished. Now I fully understand that this sounds anally pedantic to any one with a few rifles and just starting out but once the number of rifles being loaded for gets much past 10 some extreme measures are required. Please feel free to develop your own system that works for you.

Whats Next.
This post completes the series of posts for new and newish hand loaders but there is much that has needed to be glossed over. After a wee break I will do a few more posts covering some of these areas such as measuring the crush length for projectiles without a lot of expensive kit , annealing, worked examples and others. If there is anything anyone particularly hear about let me know and I will try to oblige.

Regards Grandpamac.