A free reloading log spreadsheet template (and what to put in it)

If you’re keeping your reloading notes in a notebook and want to move to a spreadsheet, or your current sheet has grown into something only you can read, this is the one I’d start with. It’s an .xlsx file, it opens in Excel, Numbers, Google Sheets, and LibreOffice, and there’s nothing clever in it. Jump to the download if you don’t want the explanation.

I built HandloaderPro because I eventually outgrew a sheet like this. But I used one for years first, and a well-laid-out spreadsheet is a real step up from a notebook. The columns below are the ones that still mattered when I went back through a decade of notes. The ones I left out are the ones that never did.

What’s in the file

Three sheets.

Read me is a one-screen version of this page: what each column is for, in a sentence.

Reloading log is the log. One row per batch loaded. The header row is frozen and has filters, so you can sort by cartridge or filter down to one rifle without scrolling back up.

Chrono string is a scratch sheet. Paste a string of velocities down column A and the shot count, average, SD, ES, high, and low fill in next to it. Copy the numbers you want back into the log row. The SD is the sample standard deviation, the same one chronographs and HandloaderPro report, so the numbers will match.

The columns, and why each one is there

The columns run in bench order, left to right, so you can fill them in as you work rather than hunting around the row.

Date. One row per batch. If you load the same recipe twice in a month, that’s two rows. The point of a log is that you can tell them apart later.

Cartridge. Write it the same way every time. “6.5 Creedmoor” in every row, not “6.5 CM” in some and “Creed” in others. This is the column you’ll filter on most, and a filter only works if the values match. That consistency problem is one of the reasons I eventually moved off a spreadsheet, but discipline gets you a long way.

Firearm. Which rifle, pistol, or shotgun. A load that shoots well in one barrel is not a load that shoots well, it’s a load that shoots well in that barrel. Two years from now you will not remember which one.

Bullet maker, Bullet, Bullet wt (gr). Three columns, not one. Split out so you can sort by maker or filter by weight. “Bullet” is the product name as printed on the box: ELD-M, MatchKing, Hybrid Target.

Powder. Full name including the maker. There is more than one 4350, and they are not interchangeable.

Charge (gr). To the tenth. If you’re throwing charges rather than weighing each one, that’s worth a note.

Primer. Maker and type. Primer changes move velocity more than most people expect, so a log that says “LR primer” is a log that can’t explain a 40 fps jump.

Brass and Firings. Who made the case, and how many times it’s been fired before this loading. Case volume and neck tension both drift with firings. If you’re not tracking it, zero is still a useful entry for new brass.

COAL (in) and CBTO (in). Cartridge overall length is what the manuals list. Base-to-ogive is what actually controls jump, and it’s far more repeatable from round to round because it doesn’t depend on the bullet tip. Record whichever you measure. Both if you can.

Seating / jump. Jump or jam, and relative to what. “.020 off” means nothing without knowing what you measured the lands with and when. A sentence is fine here.

Crimp. Type and amount, or “none.” Mostly matters for pistol and anything in a tube magazine, but it’s a variable, so it gets a column.

Quantity. How many you loaded. This is where a round count comes from, and it’s what tells you a year later whether you have any of that batch left.

Chrono shots, Avg velocity, SD, ES. Four numbers that summarize a chronograph string. The shot count is there because an SD from three shots and an SD from twenty shots are not the same kind of number. If you want the full argument for why, the chronograph guide makes it.

Group (in). Group size. Note the distance in Conditions if it isn’t your usual. If you shot more than one group, record the average, not the best one. Everyone records the best one. That’s why nobody’s old notes are reproducible.

Conditions / temp. Temperature at least. Powder temperature sensitivity is real, and a load that’s fine at 40°F can show pressure at 95°F.

Load data source. Which manual, which edition, which page, or the URL. When you come back to a load and want to know how close to max you were, you need the source, not just your charge.

Notes. Pressure signs, what you’d change next time, which chronograph you used, anything the other columns don’t hold. Write it for someone who has never seen this load, because in two years that’s who you’ll be.

What I left out on purpose

Cost per round, how many of each component are on the shelf, and lot numbers. They’re all legitimate things to track, and they all turn a log into a bookkeeping project. If you want them, add the columns. The template doesn’t care.

Where a spreadsheet stops being enough

I’ll be straight about this part, since it’s a page on a software product’s site.

A spreadsheet is fine for a long time. It stops being fine when one of three things happens: the cartridge column turns into prose and filtering stops working, the chrono data lives in a different app from the log and you can’t line them up, or you’re at the bench with a phone and the sheet is unusable on it.

If none of those have happened to you, use the sheet. If they have, that’s what HandloaderPro is for. Every session links to the actual bullet, powder, and primer from a catalog so names stay consistent, chrono strings attach to the session that produced them, and it works on a phone. Free for 14 days, no card. There’s no spreadsheet importer, so a move is a re-entry, which is the honest reason to start with good columns now: it makes that re-entry a copy job instead of an archaeology job.