Quickload Questions

[Sled2live]

Hopefully some of you that own the software can answer my questions.
I have been looking into purchasing the latest version of Quickload, but have been hesitant since I have not been able to get a few questions answered from NECO when writing them emails or leaving voice mails.

I would like to know if superformance and CFE223 are in the powder drop down list. How often do updates come out? Do they charge for updates as new bullets and powders are added?

If any of you can answer my questions, I may go ahead and purchase the software...but I am not impressed with their responsiveness so far.

Thanks
Scott

 

[maxscm]

QL does charge for upgrades.
You can add/delete projectiles to the list.
Don't know about powders.
maybe some one else will chime in with more help.

 

[DocBII]

maxscm,

QL charges for updates, per the above post. You can call NECO and they can tell you if the powder of interest is in the latest update.

HTH,
DocBII

 

[savagedasher]

My yearly up date has CEF 223. Larry

 

[Sled2live]

Thanks for the help. I am glad to see CFE223 is on the list.

Called NECO 3 times over the last month....left messages which have not been returned. 2 emails not returned.

:-(

Scott

 

[Gappmast]

I have the latest update which includes CFE223 but not Superformance. Buy Quick Load after you use it a while you will wonder how you lived with out it.

 

[Joe R]

I do use QL but IMO the NECO service is awful and charging for updates is pretty rapacious. The manual and instructions are awful and the only reason I use it is because there is no other option.

I'm hoping that some other software engineer out there that loves to shoot will take a look at QL and decide that he can do better. Until then the best I can say is that it does the job but just barely and in a very obtuse way.

Joe

 

[dcali]

I'm a software developer, and QuickLOAD is fairly awful from the software perspective. It could be reproduced better in no time by any reasonably competent software guy. BUT... the data is non-trivial to collect, and pretty much the entire value of the program. It would be like selling a ballistics calculator when you were the only one who had BC's. So I take it for what it is- which is pretty remarkable, all things considered. Compare it to buying all those reloading manuals.

Frankly, I can not imagine trying to make a living off of QuickLOAD. Between the support, the liability, and the low price tag, I don't know how they make any money. If they charge for new data, fine. Getting that data costs real money, and I'd rather have QuickLOAD than not.

 

[Joe R]

damoncali said:
BUT... the data is non-trivial to collect, and pretty much the entire value of the program. It would be like selling a ballistics calculator when you were the only one who had BC's. So I take it for what it is- which is pretty remarkable, all things considered. Compare it to buying all those reloading manuals.

damoncali,
I agreemthat inputing all the tables included in reloading manuals would be a big chore, but could the data be inputed by users through a website like JBM ballistics?

I use only a few powders and wouldn't mind inputing the data.

Kindest regards,

Joe

 

[dcali]

damoncali said:
BUT... the data is non-trivial to collect, and pretty much the entire value of the program. It would be like selling a ballistics calculator when you were the only one who had BC's. So I take it for what it is- which is pretty remarkable, all things considered. Compare it to buying all those reloading manuals.

damoncali,
I agreemthat inputing all the tables included in reloading manuals would be a big chore, but could the data be inputed by users through a website like JBM ballistics?

I use only a few powders and wouldn't mind inputing the data.

Kindest regards,

Joe

I don't know exactly how QuickLOAD calculates what it does. What little I do know of the math behind internal ballistics suggests that it's not more difficult to write a program to do internal ballistics than it is to do external ballistics. So yes, that could be done on a website.

And the bullet data obviously could be measured. What is difficult is the powder data (burn rates) and some of the other parameters that have to do with bore resistance and whatnot. Granted, QuickLOAD gives you all of that, and I haven't read their terms of service, but I'm going to guess it says you can't take that data and use it in your own program.

One of my side projects these days is to learn enough about internal ballistics to write my own version of QuickLOAD for my own use and understanding. I'm still in the early stages, and I don't really know enough about the topic to say what if anything makes QuickLOAD special, but I have a strong suspicion that there are three main reasons it is the only option:

1) Data - I've already mentioned this. It's not easy to collect.
2) Knowledge. Unlike External Ballistics, where there is more than one engineering text that will tell you exactly how to write a calculator, internal ballistics knowledge is a little more obscure and harder to track down.
3) Liability - if you screw up, you could hurt someone. This isn't the case with external ballistics.

And while it wouldn't take a huge effort to port quickload to a web based version, it would require a significant cash outlay, and I doubt that they make enough money from QuickLOAD to make that make sense. Just speculation.