A small note pad i keep in my range box. Periodically, i transfer all the data into one of my load binders. - dan
This is a very good way to keep track of working up information and then storing the permanent results in an easy to maintain and orderly manner.
I do exactly the same thing, with each individual rifle/shotgun/handgun I'm working on at the time.
As the rifles get sold off or traded, the information on that particular rifle usually goes with it, thereby keeping the size of the volume down to something manageable.
There aren't a lot of loads that can be transferred to another rifle, of different/same manufacture, chambered for the same cartridge.
The information can be used as a good starting point, but that's about it.
I used to keep small, individual log books for each rifle, on a shelf, over my loading bench. I found a new box, full of those small red deposit books that used to be provided by Scotiabank at a junk sale. 250 booklets, with heavy covers and about 20 useable pages with all sorts of lines in in columns were and still are great for working up loads.
I kept them in order of cartridge size on the shelf but that wasn't an ideal way to keep things in a reliable manner to find, without confusion.
For instance when you build a batch of sporters up on old bubbaed milsurp actions and they're all the same type of action and often wear their original barrels.
Then the booklet would have model, manufacturer, cartridge type and the serial number of the firearm.
This info was important at the time, because I would often cherry pick these rifles for accuracy to deduce whether more after market improvements were warranted.
For the rifles I keep for personal use or for teaching youngsters to shoot on, I keep all of the pertinent loading information in a two books. One is for my personal firearms and the other is for trainers/loaners.
If I loan a rifle to a youngster, for his/her first hunting season, it's done purposely as a LOAN, to deduce whether or not they can actually handle the firearm and aren't just reflecting a parental opinion, which is a real problem in such situations.
Dan, I agree, a binder, with plastic covers for the sheets of information is the best/easiest way to go. For me anyway.
I tried storing it all on a computer program. Pain in the butt. If I wanted to take it to the loading bench with me, I had to print off the information anyway, which I ended up putting into a loose collection of papers in a box on the bench. Now, I just take the binder or binders with me and everything is there on hard copy sheets and easily perusable and easily compared with other loads.
This is the same reason I insist of have several different reloading manuals. Especially the older Lyman, Speer, Hornady and Hodgdon's manuals which have loads for obsolete cartridges and the 70 year old powders I still have on hand.
