Quickload accuracy w/ 9mm & Silhouette

[d3ydx3]

I am relatively new to reloading and started w/ 9mm minor powered rounds. Powder supplies have been limited here locally, so I am working with Silhouette and Universal. I understand that Silhouette is not the best 9mm minor powder, but supposedly meters well and is accurate even though it is dirty at lower charges.

With that said, today was the 1st opportunity that I had to chronograph some of my loads. I also modeled them with Quickload and found some interesting discrepancies. My loads are obviously not very consistent. Any thoughts on why and why the Quickload data is off? For a baseline I shot a few rounds of my Magtech 124gr FMJ to confirm the chronograph was functioning correctly, which it appears that was the case.

All of the data assumes a 4.7" barrel, which is what I shot with my Sig P320 Full Size. If I change Quickload to a 4" barrel, then the data is much more inline with Quickload. The bullet type in Quickload is set to .355, 124, RN Rainier 9mm, which from my understanding is pretty close to the Berry's 124gr RN bullets.

 

 

 

[looking4reloadingdeals]

The inconsistency is going to come from slight variations in powder charge, oal, and bullet weight variation usually.
What are you using to meter powder and seat bullets? Progressive press? If so a consistent pull on the handle will help get your loads more consistent, and so will high quality Bullets. Berry are a good quality bullet and should not cause too much variation


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[d3ydx3]

2 hours ago, looking4reloadingdeals said:

The inconsistency is going to come from slight variations in powder charge, oal, and bullet weight variation usually.
What are you using to meter powder and seat bullets? Progressive press? If so a consistent pull on the handle will help get your loads more consistent, and so will high quality Bullets. Berry are a good quality bullet and should not cause too much variation


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I'm using a Lee classic turret in manual mode because I stripped the indexing guide, so maybe things will improve when I get a new one in. And yes, I do have some variations in OAL because of mixed brass. Usually, my OAL variation is between 0.001" to 0.009".

 

Edit: My powder meter is a Lee Pro Auto Disk. I did use the Auto Drum for awhile, but it leaked a significant amount of Silhouette. I've had much better luck with Pro Auto Disk and powder leakage. The Pro Auto Disk seems to be consistently throwing loads to +/- 0.1. 

Edited June 15, 2020 by pealandco

[superdude]

QL estimates are just that: estimates. Trying to match QL's estimated velocity and the actual velocity you get from your gun has zero value. In other words, it's a waste of time and effort. QL's estimates could be high, they could be low, they could match perfectly, but it does not matter. The only velocity that matters is what you get over your chronograph. 

 

The answer to your question of why QL's estimate is so far off from your actual speeds is that QL estimates the speed, and that estimate might or might not be close to the actual speed you get. Therefore, put no value in QL's estimates.  The only velocity that matters is what you get over your chronograph. 

 

Your barrel might be fast or slow compared to other barrels. That's why the only speed that matters is what you get from your gun (barrel) over your chronograph. 

 

 

[Jim Watson]

From what I have read, Quickload is just not very accurate on straight wall cartridges, especially pistol size.  It takes fudging of the inputs and assumptions to make the program "predict" objective reality. 

[4n2t0]

Because QL is useless when it comes to pistol loads, ignore it completely and work up your loads.

 

3 hours ago, superdude said:

The only velocity that matters is what you get over your chronograph.

 

Quoted for truth.

[bigedp51]

With Quickload you need a chronograph and measure the velocity of your ammunition. You then adjust the powder burn rate in Quickload until the velocity matches your chronograph.

 

Quickload defaults to the lowest case capacity for a given cartridge and this increases the chamber pressure. Meaning their is a lot of adjusting and tweaking that needs to be done to Quickload to get it to spit out a close computer generated guesstimate. And without any tweaking of Quickload and at its default settings its output data is not even close to the reloading manuals.

 

Example, with .223/5.56 cases Quickload will default to 28.0 case capacity and my Lake City 5.56 cases have 30.6 case capacity. And with the same load of 25.0 grains of H335 the default capacity of 28.0 will read 5,000 psi higher than the Lake City cases.

Edited June 18, 2020 by bigedp51

[d3ydx3]

On 6/18/2020 at 3:32 PM, bigedp51 said:

With Quickload you need a chronograph and measure the velocity of your ammunition. You then adjust the powder burn rate in Quickload until the velocity matches your chronograph.

 

Quickload defaults to the lowest case capacity for a given cartridge and this increases the chamber pressure. Meaning their is a lot of adjusting and tweaking that needs to be done to Quickload to get it to spit out a close computer generated guesstimate. And without any tweaking of Quickload and at its default settings its output data is not even close to the reloading manuals.

 

Example, with .223/5.56 cases Quickload will default to 28.0 case capacity and my Lake City 5.56 cases have 30.6 case capacity. And with the same load of 25.0 grains of H335 the default capacity of 28.0 will read 5,000 psi higher than the Lake City cases.

 

Good info - I hadn't thought of playing around with the powder burn rate. I've been tweaking the barrel length and once that is done, I can get it accurate for all charges up and down the spectrum of Silhouette, which made me think that I was onto something. Bumping the powder burn rate down also appears to do the same thing. Interesting note on the case capacity - I haven't gone through the excercise yet of filling mine up with water and getting a precise volume measure, but that is probably something that I need to do.

 

At the end of the day I just want to utilize Quickload to get a quick range of loads that I should try and then dial in as appropriate.

[d3ydx3]

On 6/18/2020 at 7:58 AM, superdude said:

QL estimates are just that: estimates. Trying to match QL's estimated velocity and the actual velocity you get from your gun has zero value. In other words, it's a waste of time and effort. QL's estimates could be high, they could be low, they could match perfectly, but it does not matter. The only velocity that matters is what you get over your chronograph. 

 

The answer to your question of why QL's estimate is so far off from your actual speeds is that QL estimates the speed, and that estimate might or might not be close to the actual speed you get. Therefore, put no value in QL's estimates.  The only velocity that matters is what you get over your chronograph. 

 

Your barrel might be fast or slow compared to other barrels. That's why the only speed that matters is what you get from your gun (barrel) over your chronograph. 

 

 

 

Good to know and lesson learned on the velocity data from Quickload. My intended use case for Quickload with pistol calibers has been getting a good range of loads that I should try out for any given bullet and powder. Would you say it has any value for that? 

[superdude]

6 hours ago, pealandco said:

 

Good to know and lesson learned on the velocity data from Quickload. My intended use case for Quickload with pistol calibers has been getting a good range of loads that I should try out for any given bullet and powder. Would you say it has any value for that? 

 

Some, yes. But you should ALWAYS check QL's output against actual pressure tested load data from powder/bullet maker's data. 

 

If you can't find any for the bullet/powder you're using, use QL's data with caution and always work up your loads.