Home Forums Reloading Reloading Software QUICKLOAD versus "load manual" revolver bbl. length?

QUICKLOAD info source says that when QL asks for revolver barrel length, it wants the distance as measured from the revolver muzzle to the rear of the cylinder.

I've been thinking about that. Is that the same measurement method that the various reloading manuals use to measure barrel length of a revolver?

Thanks folks........

FjLee Denver CO

No I don't think so.

QL does it because it then calculates "effective" barrel length depending on the actual COAL of the round.

Hence, the back of the cylinder is used as a fixed baseline to establish the actual amount of tube the bullet will travel through.

The velocity prediction will be fast by quite a bit, due to the gas loss at the cylinder gap, so what I've done to when playing "what if" is shorten the barrel length to get the velocities to match. I.E, My SuperRedhawk is a 7.5" barreled version, but to get velocity predictions to be in the ballpark, I use 6.4" when asked for barrel length. This was established using known, chronographed loads.

I haven't played with any other revolvers, so I don't know how valid that method is, but it is workable with my SRH.

I've not done anything to alter the pressure given, what with the nature of pistol powders. If the pressure is slightly overstated, then I'll just consider that as a built in safety margin. I've also migrated away from powders that only like to operate balls-to-the-walls, having gotten better accuracy from other powders, especially N110 in the .44 Mag.

It's not much, but that's all I have.

I you are getting data from source that is using SAMMI standard barrels then it is a non-vented (not revolver) barrel. If they are "not" giving psi or Cup data with the fps than they are most likely not using a SAMMI barrel. If they are not usnig a SAMMI barrel then you don't know what kind of barrel it is. It might not even have rifling, like tank barrel???