Gordon's Reloading Tool

[Snakeoil]

A member here turned me on to Gordon's Reloading Tool, which is freeware that is very similar in function to Quick Load. According to what I read, it was created to deal with some of the shortcomings of QL. The creator was a thermodynamic guy and put together one heluva team of contributors that helped build and maintain the tool. The downside is the tool is based in Europed and is missing a number of the commonly used US powders. But there are also quite a few of US powders included.

It is a free download and comes with a superb manual. I read thru the manual and decided to just jump in. It is pretty self-explanatory. Once you learn what the icons mean and what info is available to you, using it is pretty easy.

So today, I brought my chrono to the club so my buddy Craig could shoot his .22-20 SS CPA 44-1/2 over the chrono with some test loads. He is breech seating so we had to take that into consideration when I later plugged the numbers into GRT.

GRT did not have .25-20SS in its cartridge database so I used the numbers from QL that Ian used to run numbers for this same rifle last week.

We dropped the first (clean bore) and lowest (suspected load error) rounds leaving us with 10 rounds fired. He was shooting at a turkey silhouette at 400 yds and shot a decent group, never missing the target in 12 rounds fired.

Extreme spread was 40 fps and Std Dev. was 14. Not earth shattering numbers, but pretty damn good. Avg velocity was 1597fps. Load was 8.5gr of 2400 behind a 118 grain PB spitzer bullet of relatively soft lead. I'm pretty sure Craig is casting with 25:1. As mentioned above, he is breech seating.
I took the same numbers for the load and put them into GRT. The calculated velocity was damn near spot on. Here is the GRT output.



This looks like it is going to be a handy little tool for developing loads. It's not as accurate for my .218 Bee. But I'm not breech seating and we have figured that we are not getting constant pressures because neck tension is a bit iffy with such a small bullet and neck size.

I would encourage anyone who wants to play with load development to download the tool and take it for a test drive. Just Google Gordons Reloading Tool.

Unfortunately, the creator passed away back in January. I'm hoping the team he built keeps it going.

 

[Spindrift]

I have also downloaded this program, and have dabbled a little with it. The simulations I have run, have been quite close to he mark. There used to be a system where users could submit data (loads, chrony numbers with meteorological data) to be incorporated in the data base, so powder calibration would improve over time. Don’t know if this function is up and running?

Anyway, it’s a good tool and a great concept! Downloadable, no charge, ad- free....

 

[Snakeoil]

Was it you that told me about this tool? I'd have to go back and look in the thread. The problem with forums is you never put a voice or face with a comment and they all start to run together. Especially when gray hair is involved.

I really need to look deeper than I did. I saw the list of folks on the team and read a note that the plan was to hopefully keep the program alive, meaning updates to the current database of info. If I get a moment, I'm going to take a deeper dive to see how to submit new info. There are a number of powders I wanted to try when I was searching for a load for the Bee the other day and only a few of them were there. I suspect that pistols are much more restricted in Europe so that might make pistol powders less popular. That's just a guess.

I am still impressed that someone would put this amount of effort into a tool like this and make it freeware.

 

[Snakeoil]

I just joined the GRT community. It's not a forum like here. Appears to be a format similar to Facebook. They have topics like our sub-forum categories, but it does not appear that within those categories you can create separate threads. It's just a long running conversation.

From what I gleaned by reading thru a couple of the categories is, Gordon did most of the work on his own, and created things that he kept secret that are at the heart of the tool. The tool is considered property, it would appear, in German law and rights to the tool have to pass thru what I would assume we call probate here in the US. His wife is currently footing the bill to keep the site running. There is a time clock in the software that will shut it down when reached. I read two different comments about the clock. One said something gets locked after a year and another said the tool could run until 2046. So, from that I gather that the tool has a finite life unless they gain access to the tool and can figure out how it works. I have never tried to use the tool without being connected to the internet. I might try that today. My guess is, even if it will run without an internet connection, it has a timeclock built into the software and if you do not reconnect with the internet at some point, the clock will run out and the software will stop working. That's a guess on my part based upon what I've read so far.

I left an intro post on in the discussion group area, which is called Discord. So far, all the posts I saw were in English. But it could be the site is smart enough to either translate other languages for me or just shows me posts in English based upon my login info.

What I have not figured out yet is what makes up the cast of characters that post there. I suspect that there are two factions. Shooters with a practical purpose for the tool and another group that is more interested in building the tool and seeing what it can be made to do.

It will be interesting to see what kinds of replies I get to my intro.