Aguila Blanca
Staff
A recent thread in Reloading brought mention of what I assume is a new(-ish), free reloading calculator named Gordon's Reloading Tool. It was mentioned here:
https://thefiringline.com/forums/showpost.php?p=6723553&postcount=19
Being interested in such things, I immediately downloaded it and started playing. Naturally, there are no data for my favorite bullets (which I buy from Berry's Bullets), so my first step after downloading and extracting the program was to add three projectiles to the projectile database.
It's a bit of a clunky process because the program comes from Germany and the units are millimeters. They do include a pull-down unit converter but I found it easier (for me) to just use a hand-held calculator.
The bigger problem came when I discovered that their database of propellants doesn't include any of the American powders. No Winchester, no Hodgdon, no IMR, no Ramshot, no Alliant, no Western. So the best I could do as a test for my standard plinking load in .45 ACP was to do two runs, using two Vihtavuori powders that neatly straddle Winchester 231 on a powder burn rate chart. Not perfect, but I figured if I average the results I should be close.
The program, of course, spits out the velocity in meters-per-second, so for that I did use their drop-down unit converter. But ... the results I got were 896 fps for N320, and 849 fps for N330. So the average would be about 875 (okay, 872.5, but ...).
The sticky wicket is that my velocities with Winchester 231 aren't anywhere near those numbers. Those numbers are higher than standard military 230-grain ball ammo. When I chronographed that load I got somewhere in the mid 700s.
So I ran another check, using a different Berry's bullet. This is the one I refer to as my "Geezer load." In my tests, this load averaged 671 fps. Using Gordon's Reloading Tool, the calculated results were about 100 fps higher.
The program looks very impressive, but now I'm going to have to chronograph a couple of my other loads (which I have been meaning to do anyway) and see how the program's output matches up with real world results.
https://thefiringline.com/forums/showpost.php?p=6723553&postcount=19
Being interested in such things, I immediately downloaded it and started playing. Naturally, there are no data for my favorite bullets (which I buy from Berry's Bullets), so my first step after downloading and extracting the program was to add three projectiles to the projectile database.
It's a bit of a clunky process because the program comes from Germany and the units are millimeters. They do include a pull-down unit converter but I found it easier (for me) to just use a hand-held calculator.
The bigger problem came when I discovered that their database of propellants doesn't include any of the American powders. No Winchester, no Hodgdon, no IMR, no Ramshot, no Alliant, no Western. So the best I could do as a test for my standard plinking load in .45 ACP was to do two runs, using two Vihtavuori powders that neatly straddle Winchester 231 on a powder burn rate chart. Not perfect, but I figured if I average the results I should be close.
The program, of course, spits out the velocity in meters-per-second, so for that I did use their drop-down unit converter. But ... the results I got were 896 fps for N320, and 849 fps for N330. So the average would be about 875 (okay, 872.5, but ...).
The sticky wicket is that my velocities with Winchester 231 aren't anywhere near those numbers. Those numbers are higher than standard military 230-grain ball ammo. When I chronographed that load I got somewhere in the mid 700s.
So I ran another check, using a different Berry's bullet. This is the one I refer to as my "Geezer load." In my tests, this load averaged 671 fps. Using Gordon's Reloading Tool, the calculated results were about 100 fps higher.
The program looks very impressive, but now I'm going to have to chronograph a couple of my other loads (which I have been meaning to do anyway) and see how the program's output matches up with real world results.
).