Reloading Log / Data Sheets

[roland17]

First off, thanks for the podcast.  When I was young (< 10 years old) I would help my dad reload, but I lost so much of that information over the years.  He recently passed away and suddenly I have all of the reloading tools I could ask for, and many that I had no idea even existed.  Because I never did help him to reload as an adult I had very little knowledge on how to start this new (to me) hobby.  I have used your podcast to help get going, building knowledge, and this week I loaded my first 100 rounds.  Now I need to go shoot them to test!  hmm... which chronograph to use... I have 4 now!

One thing that I did not find in my dad's stuff was a reloading log.  I've found a few scraps of paper and places where he's marked in manuals about certain loads, but nothing concise. 

Jayson, you had mentioned in one episode that you would post or post links to an excel sheet you use.  I'm a big nerd and would love to have a copy of that to start with.  I looked around here, but never did see it linked.  If you could point me in the right direction that would be great.

Also anyone else with something like that, please post it too! 

Thanks again for the great podcast!

[Jim Fleming]

Welcome back, Roland.

As far as log sheets go, I like the MTM Handloader's Log, note book, etc... Here's the link for it:

http://www.mtmcase-gard.com/products/reloading/reloading-hl-95.html

Good luck, but I do have some advice, if you don't mind? Get yourself several manuals, and look for your Dad's stuff, surely he had Reloading Manuals... They're as valuable (information wise) as gold to a Handloader.

[Jim Fleming]

Once you have the Handloader'ss Log book Roland it's a snap to photocopy anything you want out of it. You own it, it's yours to copy as you see fit...

I could actually see owning a Handloader's Log book for each firearm that I own... I like them that well..

[50BMG]

i have not posted that link for the handload log yet cause im trying to add some other stuff to it that has help me out and it might be useful for others.
but email me and ill send you the file and you can evalute it and give me some feed back to what you think.

[roland17]

Good luck, but I do have some advice, if you don't mind? Get yourself several manuals, and look for your Dad's stuff, surely he had Reloading Manuals... They're as valuable (information wise) as gold to a Handloader.

Thanks for the link.  I'll check it out. 

I did find several manuals (multiple dozens, it seems) but no record keeping logs that he did.  Just lots of bookmarks in the manuals. 

I shot my first reloads today.  I sent 66 rounds through my Springfield XDM and had only 1 failure.  One round didn't go bang (or pop, or anything).  It looks like maybe a dud / contaminated primer.  I don't think it was seated improperly, if anything it was slightly high (flush with the bottom of the case) in the primer pocket.  I'm going to pull the bullet tomorrow and see if I can find anything wrong with it.  Never had a failure to fire in this pistol before.  I'm sure it was a mistake on my part that caused the failure, not the gun or the instructions!

Thanks again for the help and for the show.  After I shot and inspected the cases I came back inside and loaded up 50 more with a slightly different formula.  I started at the extreme low end of the powder amount and I'm working my up. 

[Jim Fleming]

Whatever you do, PLEASE, PLEASE, don't go below what's listed in your manuals... There's something that's extremely rare, that can cause serious problems if you go too low on powder charges. Supposedly it happens extremely rarely, and when it does happen it happens mostly in rifle cartridges, but (Jim's Opinion here) I feel that if it happens in Rifle, it conceivably could happen in Pistol Cartridges. (that's not a fact or anything like that, it's ONLY __my opinion__)

Sure, for safety reasons, start at the lowest charge you can find, then work up a tenth of a grain at a time... But, again, please don't go below the lowest charge listed...

Just my $0.02 worth, for what that's worth and $0.02 don't buy much these days... editing note: took out a single 0

[roland17]

I'm not, I started at the lowest charge listed in the manual (and cross-referenced several manuals).  Working up from there.

Thanks for the warnings!   

[Jim Fleming]

Good Job, Roland, nice to see you're taking things, slow, careful and easy.