Loads

A load records a handload recipe and its measured performance: components, charge weight, seating depth, and velocity tests.

Managing loads

• Loads (drawer → My Setup) lists your loads; tap to edit.
• A load records the components (case, primer, powder, projectile), the charge weight and seating details.

Velocity and seating depth tests

Each load can hold one or more tests. A test is a string of chronographed shots:

• Enter velocities by hand, or import them from a chronograph export file (see Importing Data); imported shots route straight into a load test.
• Tests produce the usual string statistics (average, extreme spread, standard deviation).

The two kinds of test

A test says what it steps across its nodes, which is how a normal work-up splits in two:

• A charge test steps the powder charge and holds seating constant. This is the usual first test: a ladder to find a charge node.
• A seating test holds the charge you settled on and steps seating instead, to tune the group. It names which measurement it is stepping: COAL, length to ogive, or seating depth.

Both kinds live in one list on the load, newest first, each card badged with its kind. A seating test also shows the charge it was fired at, so a card always reads on its own.

Whichever kind a test is, the value it is not stepping is recorded on every node as the held constant, so an exported test carries both figures.

Using a test result

You never have to copy a winning row back by hand:

• Use on a node row promotes that row’s value into the load recipe.
• Use this test on the card promotes its best row: lowest standard deviation, then smallest extreme spread, then smallest group. Rows with fewer than two velocities cannot be ranked and are skipped.

A promotion writes only the variable that test stepped, so promoting a seating result never disturbs the charge an earlier ladder settled. The promoted row is starred, and the recipe field shows the test it came from. Typing over the field yourself replaces the value and drops that note.

Tests are entirely optional. If you would rather type the charge and seating straight into the load, nothing here gets in the way.

Muzzle velocity vs temperature

Powder burns faster when it’s warm. The rifle profile carries an MV/temperature table (measured muzzle velocities at different ammo temperatures), and your load tests are its natural source:

• Seed the table from tests logged across seasons: each test offers its average velocity at the temperature it was shot in.
• With two or more points in the table, the solver interpolates the muzzle velocity for the current Ammo Temp set on the location’s atmosphere panel.
• The Quick Settings widget lets you tweak powder temperature on the fly to see the effect.