Ken,
First off Ken I would like to thank you for the privelege of being able to ask you questions on this forum. I have been reloading for 31 years and have managed to get buy without the quickload software. But I guess the same could be said about cell phones and computers.I guess my question is will quickload help you develop that ultimate load quicker than a manual. I know when I started reloading it was to save money. But it has seemed to turn into can I get that load from .75 to .50 to.25.

I prefer QuickLOAD to the manuals, for a number of reasons, so I'm definitely inclined to answer "yes."

With either the software or the manual, you have to test and tweak your load to get the best results. The software eliminates a lot of confusion and blind alleys that a manual can lead you to.

QuickLoad is particularly useful when you're going somewhere unusual, like wildcatting or looking at powders that aren't normally used in particular application. I've found it great for developing subsonic loads, for example.

So if I'm reading this right.....basically QL is like a recipe of sorts, in other words say I wanted to use a certain bullet and cant find no manuals that listed a certain powder I also wanted to try then you could punch the questions/numbers into the QL program and it should give me answers.
Like for instance (just an example) say I wanted to use a lost river 180 grain bullet and Retumbo powder in my 30/378 Weatherby mag and cant find no info at all from either company or anybody else, as long as the program knows the characteristics of the bullet and powder it should give me a "recipe".????
Does that sound right Ken?

and for a follow-up question: how close does the info it gives you end up being to what you experimentally derive ???

The word recipe is misleading. QL does not prescribe a load (neither does a manual, for that matter).

QL is a calculator or a simulator. It can predict what you're likely to get from whatever you plug into it, and it can predict (surprisingly closely!) what you should try, to get what you want.

Since QL isn't a gun, it can predict, for example, how much pressure and velocity you'd get from a caseful of Bullseye behind a 300-grain Sierra in a .338-.378 if the rifle didn't burst long before the pressure could get that high.

A friend asked me to check a couple of his pet loads (in two cartridges) to see whether his pressures were safe. He gave me the specs of the cartridges, the loads, and the rifles. QL indicated that his pressures were safe � which was what he wanted to know � but what really impressed him was that QL's predicted velocities were within ten feet per second of his chronograph results for one load and right on for the other.

No one should expect that kind of agreement between QL and chronograph, of course � but those two QL "tests" show why some folks call QL "eerie," and others call it "scary."