Thom28 wrote:Thanks Hoot for the enlightening info. It was quite a surprise when I googled it and saw the price.
I have been reloading since the mid 70s. Didn't even have computers back then. Just reloading manuals and spending time on the range.
It has served me well all these years and I see no need to change now.
Thom
I didn't mean to discourage you. If I could get comfortable with it, so could most folks with some reloading under their belt. It is fun to play
What if... Some loads are close to spot on as predicted once you get them out at the range. Some are off however. W296 predicts much higher in the 450b than it delivers using a taper crimp. The good news is, you can edit the database that drives the engine to reflect what you're actually getting in practice. After that, it will predict much more accurately for that caliber/powder combination. The more mainstream the caliber, the better your chances of getting good load data right from the software. I have never seen QL under-predict real results. It tends to err on the side of caution.
Software prices aren't going down, regardless of what the application is. As modeling software goes, QL is pretty cheap. I'll post a screen shot of the main engine view, to give you an idea of all the variables it takes into consideration, including ambient temperature.