QuickLoad - Quickly Find Similar Powders for Load

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JohndeFresno
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QuickLoad - Quickly Find Similar Powders for Load

Post by JohndeFresno »

SYNOPSIS:
QuickLoad allows you to decide on the BEST load from an array of powders. This saves money and time.

This post shows how QL allows you to set powders with similar burn ratios from an existing load, and then shows you everything needed to select the best powder candidate: Fill ratio (% Case filled), Propellant % burned (the higher the better), “P max psi” (Peak psi produced by load), and of course the amount of powder needed for each brand.

In reading through earlier posts once again, I gather that many potential users think that QuickLoad is quite limited in usefulness. On the contrary, there are many amazing functions of this software of which most handloaders are unaware. Once again, my proviso: I have no financial interest in this product; I just like to share its remarkable advantages with dedicated reloaders.

Here we go –

Image
1) This load is just a little warmer than the standard .45 Colt SAAMI limit (14k psi),
and you have to leave room for the variance in lots of powder, primers, loading depth, and so on. So this is NOT recommended for that cartridge.

Instead, it is a mild Ruger Blackhawk type load, at around 1,000fps and around 14,847 psi or a little more (per QL). It uses my favorite all around powder and weight – 8.0 gr. Unique.

It also satisfies my desire (for any handgun load) to fill the case more than 45%; in this case, it appears to fill over half the case.

QL users, note in the display that both the Penn bullet and the cartridge designation - 45 Colt Blackhawk (SAAMI) - may not be on your QuickLoad tables. I created the Penn entry, and if memory serves, I also created the higher 45 Colt Blackhawk entry, both of which are easy enough to manipulate with the software.

NOTE HERE that the barrel length of my .45 Colt load is shown as 16 inches (top left box, bottom left corner), because this is actually for a Model 92 Rossi .45 Colt carbine, which can handle the pressure. I can change the barrel length there to see what a shorter barrel in a handgun will produce, should I want a shared carbine / handgun cartridge.


2) Let’s say that I am out of Unique.
Image


Or, maybe I want to verify that this is the best powder for the bullet, weight, and desired velocity, given the barrel length of my firearm. The chosen powder, Unique, has a “Ba” Burning Rate Factor of 2.3500, shown in the top right Powder box of the main screen form. Note this figure: 2.3500.


3) Now, click on the Propellant Table in the top ribbon as shown here.
Image



4) You will get a screen overlay.

Select the Minimum BA Value and Maximum BA Value sliders (circled in this example) to a bit below and above your figure of 2.3500 to find a range of powders similar in burn speed to Unique. I chose 2.11 to 3.12, which gave me a wide choice of usable powders.
Image


Fill in other information as needed, e.g. “1128” in the “Suggested Muzzle Velocity,” then click on the circle next to that choice to limit all loads to that muzzle velocity.

Then, click on the “Apply&Exit” button in the lower right corner of the screen overlay form.


5) Notice that the lower left box of the main screen form has changed,
displaying text concerning your cartridge, bullet, and so on. Click on the little square box icon in the upper right of that screen as shown to see the whole printout.
Image


6) Before you print the results, you should decide on how you want the data sorted.
I always use the “Sort by…” dropdown at the top of the form and select “Pressure” in Descending order for this type of search. You can run other sorts after you have found powders within safe limits – those between dangerously low or high ranges. If necessary, you can adjust the BA ranges to eliminate some extremes and run the function again.
Image


7) This is the result that I obtained for my load.

Unique is a great choice for this type of load, but you can see that there are some other very good possibilities at lower pressures. Since the only powder that I have with lower pressure is Power Pistol and in limited amounts designated for 9mm loads, I have made a good choice with Unique.
Image

If you have any questions, some other QL users can chime in. For instance, earlmck “has your Six” since he is quite knowledgeable about this software, among other things. I have some other things on my plate and won't be checking in as often, from this point forward.

Cheers, Levergunners.
Last edited by JohndeFresno on Sat Jun 30, 2018 6:11 pm, edited 6 times in total.
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AJMD429
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Re: QuickLoad - Quickly Find Similar Powders for Load

Post by AJMD429 »

That's a cool post. I never fiddled with QuickLoad so wasn't sure how it worked.
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earlmck
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Re: QuickLoad - Quickly Find Similar Powders for Load

Post by earlmck »

Dang John, I've been using QuickLoad for several years and you still showed me new stuff. Thanks!

And how the heck do you get those "screen shots" for your post like that? Nifty!
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Bill in Oregon
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Re: QuickLoad - Quickly Find Similar Powders for Load

Post by Bill in Oregon »

John, is there any way to eliminate those many powders not normally encountered in the United States?
JohndeFresno
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Re: QuickLoad - Quickly Find Similar Powders for Load

Post by JohndeFresno »

Thanks, Gentlemen,

earlmck wrote: Sun Jul 01, 2018 10:53 am
...how the heck do you get those "screen shots" for your post like that?

Earl, I used Snagit, a versatile and powerful screen capture utility. I have used it for many years, since it was first developed, for training manuals and such. I don't recall if it has a free version, but there are probably still some good free screen capture utilities around.

Then I placed arrows, text etc on to the image with the free Windows utility, Paint.

Bill in Oregon wrote: Sun Jul 01, 2018 11:26 am
John, is there any way to eliminate those many powders not normally encountered in the United States?


Bill, all of the tables (data files) are plain text and can be edited. However, be sure to make an original copy before altering that file.

The powder profile file can be copied (eg as COPY_qloadfw.pro), then you can remove the complete lines of unused powders on your new active file (qloadw.pro) using Notepad, Wordpad, or other straight text editor, and then towards the beginning of the file, changing the number (eg " 294 pulver" meaning "powder" in German) to the number count of your entries.

The safest way to edit the powder file AFTER you have saved a copy is to select the third icon from the left on the top ribbon (Permanent Powder Profile Edit) and pull up and delete each powder that you won't or can't use.

You can use your computer's "Search" function to find "qloadfw.pro" and nearby files; but generally a Windows user installs QuickLoad for "All Users," which means that the Powder Profile file will be installed in this directory:
C:\Users\Public\Documents\QuickLOAD\data\powders
or, if you only installed the program into a Windows computer under just YOUR user name, it might be something like:
C:\Users\OregonBill\Documents\QuickLOAD\data\powders

As an added precaution, if you are going to fiddle with the files, it would not hurt to back up the entire Documents\QuickLOAD folder to some other folder - something that I did early on that saved me the considerable time of reloading the program and starting over, because I didn't completely understand the editing procedure.

As for me, I now keep all the powders listed. I removed some, as you have considered, in the past, then I had to reload the file from my saved original copy when some company - was it Nobel? - opened up some of their powders for the U.S. market. Besides, I have occasionally corresponded with a few handloaders from other countries who wanted some load info, and then encouraged them to buy QuickLoad.

A side note: You can see from this example that two powders seem to be the same ones, but marketed under different labels:
Fiocchi F-Rex yellow and Lovex S020. Look at the numbers all the way across - they are identical. Of course, I would want to run a few other comparisons just in case the powders diverge on other loads, to be sure - since I am no chemist. These similarities show up best when you sort the results by "Pressure," my chosen first sort for most applications.

Similarly (on another load I checked), it appears that IMR TrailBoss is exactly the same powder as ADI AS 25 BP, per the matching numbers. But again as a warning, I didn't double check these powders with other loads; they matched exactly on one particular load.
IMR TrailBoss 122.6 10.2 0.66 1128 100.0 23981 804 1.518 ! Near Maximum !
ADI AS 25 BP 122.6 10.2 0.66 1128 100.0 23981 804 1.518 ! Near Maximum !

Sorry, non-QuickLoad readers, for the long, geeky dissertation.

Circumstances dictate that I won't be checking in here to answer posts very regularly anymore, but I want to drop in occasionally for questions or perhaps to share something that fellow Levergunners might find useful.

EDITED today for correction of a misleading typo
Last edited by JohndeFresno on Sun Jul 01, 2018 4:05 pm, edited 1 time in total.
JerryB
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Re: QuickLoad - Quickly Find Similar Powders for Load

Post by JerryB »

John, I am really sorry to read this of you leaving. When me or anyone else has a question about anything I always look forward to your post on the subject. You and Earl can always give safe and very accurate data, thank you both.
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JohndeFresno
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Re: QuickLoad - Quickly Find Similar Powders for Load

Post by JohndeFresno »

Thanks, Jerry - I appreciate your inputs and hard work and the other excellent posts and efforts from Leverguns folks.
Going offline, now, after correcting a typo in the above post.
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GunnyMack
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Re: QuickLoad - Quickly Find Similar Powders for Load

Post by GunnyMack »

It appears that JohndeFresno has disabled PMs, I just tried to Pm him.
John...?
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