Load Development

Load Dev is probably one of the biggest "black arts" of making ammunition, but once it can be understood as a process, much of the art fades to science. While some of the initial data that goes into load creation is largely due to experience and intuition there are great many ways you can back up a gut feeling with science. I will do my best to tear away the shrouds in this post.

Since this is a very complex topic I'm going to be breaking it up into multiple posts. Here is Part 1: Tools

Tools

When everyone first gets into reloading, they spend a lot of time buying tools, constantly finding they need this gizmo, or that whiz-bang, and in general they will make more than a few runs to the sporting goods store to pick up the next thing they never knew they needed. Having the right tools to understand what ammunition is doing when you fire it is an essential part of load development. So what are the tools?

The primary tools needed for load development are those that measure, whether you're trying to squeeze the most accuracy, the highest muzzle velocity, (or lowest in some cases) having the right tools is an essential part. If you are reading this post, you probably already have one of those essential tools: A computer. Computers are very handy for their ability to quickly and easily make complex calculations on large amounts of data. I highly recommend having a spreadsheet type program, like Microsoft Excel, or OpenOffice's Calc application, both have a similar look and feel.

The next necessary tool is a good chronograph, there are many different ones on the market with all kinds of options, under most circumstances, if you have a pen and paper, you don't need the type with the memory and built in calculators and the like, you just need one of the basic ones that when a shot goes over it, it gives you the velocity in your favorite units (I recommend Feet per Second, as it's a little more granular than M/s but it's all a matter of tolerance in the long run).

You will also need some targets, any kind of targets will do, most people use a calibrated target that will have 1" grid squares on it, or something similar. For certain purposes I have a set of transparencies which have group size circles on them, so I can determine if a particular group is 1 MOA, 2 MOA, etc.

Clearly, you will need a firearm that chambers and fires the particular round you are conducting the experiment for, preferably one with repeatable sights, and reasonable accuracy. (Most modern firearms have excellent accuracy)

Some other measuring tools are usually handy to have too, a set of calipers for measuring OAL and group size. A magnifying glass, a tablet and a pen for writing down numbers, sometimes a scientific calculator is handy too.