I'm working on a chapter ("Burning the Midnight Powder") for one of my books, about ballistics software for handloaders. I'll probably submit shorter versions of that chapter as articles for one or more magazines. The big delay right now is the time-consuming chore of preparing the illustrations that are so necessary for clarity.
Since 1982, I've used over a dozen of these ballistics programs and have found myself gravitating more and more to just two � Hartmut Br�mel's QuickLOAD (QL) and Ken Oehler's Ballistic Explorer (BEX). I use QL almost exclusively for interior ballistics and BEX for comparing the exterior ballistics of different cartridges and loads. BEX's use of two or three traces (comparing velocities, energies, trajectories, times of flight, wind deflection, etc) on the same graph is invaluable to me. QL's included QuickTARGET (QT) is very useful when a single exterior-ballistics trace is all that I need or is of interest to me at the moment.
Remember:
� QuickLOAD (like any other ballistics software) predicts many details of probable results � it does not report actual results of any load in any firearm.
� The manuals report a few details of actual results of a limited number of loads in a limited number of firearms. Their data are not predictions of results in other firearms and should never be taken as predictions, recipes, or prescriptions.
� The principle of "garbage in, garbage out" {GIGO) applies to QuickLOAD and other ballistics software as much as it applies to computer software in general. Enter reliable input data, and you can rely on pretty good output data. Give it garbage to munch, and you can expect results that may crunch your gun and munch on you.
Peril lurks in the weeds close by the trail of the casual or careless user. Any good ballistics software can help you steer clear of catastrophe, if you use it carefully. Or it can help you make sure that you'll wallow in risk if you use it carelessly.
