Who keeps a personal 'Pet Loads' book?

[WeekendReloader]

---
Off topic a little but I have seen a few people in this thread - and a few others - say that the COVID plandemic had interrupted their regular shooting routine. I still work a regular 7-7 job and can only go to an indoor range once every weekend or so. COVID hasn't interrupted that but it has interrupted my supply chains. Out of curiosity, why can't you go shooting as often? Here in Florida, gun stores and ranges were considered essential businesses and never closed down.

In Michigan, all indoor ranges and public outdoor ranges were shuttered starting in March. They reopened in July with limitations on capacity, every other lane was roped off to limit to 1/2 capacity and more than 6 foot spacing. When the ranges opened, people would be lining up, 6 feet apart, waiting for a lane to open. I would go first thing in the morning when they opened to shoot. Sometimes my friend and I would have to share a lane. When I left, there were always people waiting for my spot.

 

[GeoDudeFlorida]

I have a note book for each caliber I load for. Nothing fancy by any means. When I do a work up for something new or try different components for something I have been loading I generally use a small 3" sticky target on a sheet of blank printer paper. Each one of those sheets gets the combination written down on the sheet before it goes to the range. When I get home the best group goes up on the wall next to my reloading bench.

For handy reference while sitting at the bench I look up and can see all of the details of any particular load and the group it produced.

---
Great idea but I don't really want to put my targets up where other people might see them. I'm lucky to see the target and A sight simultaneously, even with new prescription shooting glasses. I can't remember the last time I could see the rear sight, front sight AND target clearly all at the same time. My 10" 75' target looks like a shotgun pattern.

 

[Waterboy3313]

--
Great idea but I don't really want to put my targets up where other people might see them. I'm lucky to see the target and A sight simultaneously, even with new prescription shooting glasses. I can't remember the last time I could see the rear sight, front sight AND target clearly all at the same time. My 10" 75' target looks like a shotgun pattern.

Originally my plan was to use a 3 hole punch and keep them in a binder. I needed some decorations for the wall in my garage and the empty wall space I use is located right behind the electrical panel so it keeps me from trying to anchor shelves or anything to the wall with screws or anything that might find the wiring.

 

[.38 Special]

---
Off topic a little but I have seen a few people in this thread - and a few others - say that the COVID plandemic had interrupted their regular shooting routine. I still work a regular 7-7 job and can only go to an indoor range once every weekend or so. COVID hasn't interrupted that but it has interrupted my supply chains. Out of curiosity, why can't you go shooting as often? Here in Florida, gun stores and ranges were considered essential businesses and never closed down.

Simply that I no longer have a steady source of reloading materials - primers in particular - so no longer enjoy using them up.

 

[Offfhand]

I find it convenient to maintain a file for my shootable guns, with original test targets and related data. With some targets and data spanning multiple years, it amounts to several file drawers of valuable and interesting information..

 

[CQB45ACP]

I still have my original Beach Boys album Pet Loads.

 

[Captcurt]

I always write my recipes down in the back of my manuals. The problem is too many manuals. I think that I have 8 or 10 going back to the early 70's. I need to get a notebook and consolidate all of them.

 

[kidneyboy]

I keep a card file with recipes that work for each gun I own. Stopped keeping load workup data long ago as every gun wants something a little different anyway.

 

[cfullgraf]

I use 3 ring binders to record all my reloads. One tab for each cartridge that I reload. I have printed log sheets to record various information using a lot number to reference between each different log sheet, a section for notes, and I keep loose leaf information on the cartridge in the tab.

I do make a printed list of favorite loads for all cartridges that I keep in the front of the binders. Periodically, it gets edited and updated as I find new and better combinations.

It is only a couple pages long, by no means a "book".

 

[EMC45]

I have a black and white marbled type composition notebook that is split for long gun and handguns. Been writing stuff down in it since I started loading. I will jot small notes off to the side of the data saying good or bad.

 

[Walkalong]

 

[Jeff Flannery]

When I first started handloading - as opposed to "just reloading" - the first piece of advice I got from the old fellers who helped me get started is, keep a pet loads book. It's my set of personal recipes for what works, what doesn't, what I've tried and what I was told "might" work. I lost my original book decades ago in a move. Started a new one. Then got out of hand loading and reloading for some time. Lost the second one from carelessness during that lapse. Started a third one and it's still with me. I also keep some recipes just in a spreadsheet or a label-making database, not written down anywhere else. I'm thinking that's a mistake I need to correct over the holiday break.

Anyways, I'm curious what other experienced hand loaders and reloaders do. Do you keep a book? If so, is it written, typed, just digital, a blend...? And, if you don't keep a pet loads book, how do you keep track of your best - and worst - loads?

This place is a fantastic resource of personal experiences and data I do not intend to let go to waste.

When I work up a load, I label 5 loads with whats loaded in them on a loading block and pick the best load then put that in my "pet load" section of my old sierra loading book.

 

[Kevin Rohrer]

I bought a load book decades ago and put my trial loads in it, separated by weapon.

 

[TrickyDick]

I have one somewhere, but I don't know where it went as it was on the shelf next to my manuals. It has to be around here somewhere

 

[berettaprofessor]

Excel spreadsheet of loads and chrony data on each load.

 

[Neutron Boy]

I keep an Excel spreadsheet that I use to record my load data and chrono readings. Makes analytics easy!

 

[GeoDudeFlorida]

I have one somewhere, but I don't know where it went as it was on the shelf next to my manuals. It has to be around here somewhere

—-
At least there’s somebody less organized than I am. Y’all were starting to give me a complex.

 

[IALoder]

I have a smaller notebook I keep all of my loading info in. Load recipes, headspace measurements, CBTO for different bullets in n each caliber, etc. I'd be lost without it!

 

[Pat Riot]

I started out using an Index Card box with plans to create a binder or book one day. The index card file works so well for me I never bothered with anything else.

 

[jmorris]

I have a cabinet that’s kind of like a reverse roll top with lots of drawers where I store gun reloading stuff. On the front I have printed labels that have my “pet” loads on them.

Old fashioned 3 ring binders that go out into the field that have everything I have tested with notes, only the good ones get printed with labels, many stuck to boxes, the real winners to the drawers.

 

[mokin]

I started recording loads in 3.25 x 4.5 notebooks on day/load one. I write components, data source, maybe other details on one page and chronograph and accuracy results on the back. I started building a database in an old laptop using Office Libre - sort of like Access.

 

[bullseye308]

I use a 3 ring binder with some printed pages I got in the late 80’s. Using stickon tabs to separate calibers, every load I have tried is in there. Most of my guns have specific loads worked up for for each one so there is a lot of trial and error finding the load for each one. Once i find the load for a specific gun I’ll stick with it and see if any others like it as well.

Having one 357 and having found a load it likes 15 years ago that is the only load I make for it. Same with 38 spl, only one load goes through it. Having 6 9mm’s means I load 3 different loads as some share a load.

 

[BWS]

Standard typing/copy paper,folded in half down the long axis.

Firearm dope on top,highlighted. Critical chamber measures,shoulder bumps,headspace.... anything more firearm than load.

Then,comes the bullet along with OAL jam and diameters,any other particulars.

Next would be a specific powder,written in "realtime" as to remarks and notations meaning,if I was to pick this loading pamphlet up 2 years from now..... want to quickly be able to fall right back into line with the progress. So while there may not be a single load that represents a "pet load",it's easy to read through a few lines and understand where the process was when it was being developed.

A different powder,gets a different sheet/s of paper. A different bullet,new insert. Each firearm has it's own pamphlet. I had made a response in the handloading "what are you doing today thread" VERY recently about starting now,to keep even more specifics. Cast rifle loads can take gobs of fine tuning,you just don't,or can't leave out details from the load notes. It isn't that you can't figure it out say,with a 2 year break..... but why? Takes but a few seconds to write down a "specific".

Not selling this idea,AT ALL..... it's what works for me. The loading room here is a place of relaxation,not in a rush so writing a journal of sorts is fun reading if there are breaks in shooting that firearm. And have safes full..... so there are naturally going to be breaks.

Good luck with your project.

 

[Lennyjoe]

Spiral notebook here. I also take photos of the targets for record as well.

 

[rkittine]

I keep a three ring binder with all my loading data and highlight my favorite loads by gun and caliber. I also keep a small spiral notebook with every one of my guns and in addition to Round Count etc. I put down what load it shoots the best.

Bob