[Unclenick]

Originally Posted by Mac

1) Do you use QuickLOAD (QL)?

Yes. I was one of the early adopters when it first became available through NECO. I have always kept it current and used all the features.

Originally Posted by Mac

2) If so, do you agree with me that the units are not properly labeled for Bulk Density in QL? [I expect so, based upon your last response, but I want to make this clear for anybody else who comes upon this thread?]. . . Is this not irregular? It truly must be in terms of grains/cc !!!

No. grains/cc is not a unit of density in any standard measuring system I am aware of, while g/cm³ is the standard unit of density in the cgs system. Don’t forget this program is written in Europe, where bullets and powder are weighed in grams and not grains. The Vihtavuori load data, for example, includes separate columns of grams and grains so American and English and European handloaders can all use it.

The grain is just an English system weight unit and is less universal than the gram, and there’s nothing magic about it. It really doesn’t make any difference what units you use as long as the conversions are correct. In this case 0.900 g/cm³ is a correct value for the g/cm³ unit. If I were to express that same density in grains/cc, the value would change from 0.900 to 13.9 (rounding to 3 decimal places). 0.900 is grams. There are 15.43236 grains in a gram. 0.900×15.4=13.9, so 0.9 g/cm³ = 13.9 grains/cm³.

You can see a kind of cross check built into QuickLOAD. That bulk density number is the basis for the case fill/loading ratio calculation (i.e., Filling/L.R. in the lower left of the powder charge window). If that 0.900 gram numerator were wrong, so would the case fill result be wrong. Note that when you enter 100% fill of H4350 into the Filling/L.R. space, the resulting charge weight in grams to the right of the charge weight in grains is 0.9 times the value for Usable Case Capacity in cm³. Similarly, the Usable Case Capacity in grains of water volume (another possible volume unit for the denominator of a non-standard density unit) divided into the charge weight in grains at 100% case fill is also a ratio of 0.900.

Originally Posted by Mac

. . . The question mark appears in the propellent name because at one time or another I was fiddling with the temperature (it has been around 110 degrees F at the Corona Sportsmen's Club range lately...

You don’t actually want to do that with this particular powder. Check the box next to “Tooltip help enable” in the Info menu at the top of QuickLOAD, if it isn’t checked already. Click on the button to enable powder characteristic editing. The thermometer button appears above the Filling/L.R. value. Put the cursor over that temperature button and you will see a note pop up that says not to use this feature with temperature compensated powders. H4350 is a temperature compensated powder. The whole Hodgdon Extreme line of powders from Australia are temperature compensated.

For further insight, you might want to read Denton Bramwell’s article on temperature sensitivity. He concludes barrel temperature is a lot more important than ambient powder temperature.

Hope that helps,

Nick