LOADSCOPE™User Manual

Welcome to Loadscope

What the app does, in one breath.

Loadscope turns your range data into a finished load. You shoot a powder ladder and (optionally) a seating-depth ladder, import your chronograph data, and measure your target groups right in the app (or import them from a target app if you use one). Loadscope scores every powder charge, seating depth and tuner setting, picks the winner, and builds you a printable recipe card and a predicted DOPE chart.

The workflow at a glance

  • 1. Set up your rifle once (the Rifle & Setup page).
  • 2. Shoot your ladder over a chronograph and at a target.
  • 3. Import your chronograph data (the Import Data page) and measure your target groups from a photo (the Measure Target page) — or import a target app's CSV if you use one.
  • 4. Read the answer on the Results page — your best charge and seating depth, scored.
  • 5. Predict your dial on Range & DOPE, and print a DOPE Card for the field.
Loadscope works without Excel. The workbook is computed in-app; cards print through your browser.

Rifle & Setup

Tell Loadscope about your rifle and load — once.

The first thing it asks is What test are you running? — powder ladder, seating depth, barrel tuner or factory ammo. Pick that first: it decides which boxes the rest of the page shows, and the other pages follow it.

This page captures the constants for this load: the cartridge, the bullet (with its ballistic coefficient), the powder and your test charges, primer, brass, the rifle and barrel, and your optic. Loadscope remembers what you typed before and offers it as a dropdown next time.

Key fields

  • Cartridge / Rifle / Barrel / Optic — identify the setup. The barrel name is what your round count is tracked against.
  • Bullet — pick from the library (its BC fills in) or type a custom bullet and BC.
  • Powder + test charges — the powder and the charge weights you loaded for the ladder.
  • Primer / Brass — for your records and the recipe card.
  • Zero distance — the range your scope is zeroed at (under Rifle). The DOPE Card and Range & DOPE work from it, and it travels with the rifle to your next load. Test distance (under Test Session) is a different number: how far you shot this ladder.
  • Round count — set or add to this barrel's count. It is shared with the Barrels library and the phone companion.
You only set this up once per load. After that you just import range data.
Set up a rifle now, run the ladder later. When you build a rifle it is saved to your Rifles library right away — even if you don't shoot that day — so you can come back, start a new load, and pick it up where you left off.

Import Data

Plug your chronograph in, or drop its export file here, and click Run. With a load already set up, there is no prep at all.

Start a new load first

Click Create New Load in the sidebar, enter your ladder once (start charge, step, number of charges), and shoot it in order — lowest charge to highest (or highest to lowest, if you set the plan to High → Low). Then import your chronograph data — and your target app's export if you use one — and click Run Import. (No target app? Measure your target groups from a photo instead.) Loadscope matches each string to the right charge by shot order and time. See Create New Load for the full walkthrough.

Straight off a Garmin Xero (the easy way)

Plug the Xero into your computer with the USB cable that came with it — a charge-only cable has no data wires, so the Xero powers up and nothing ever appears. Loadscope notices it and shows a banner at the top of the Import Data page — “Garmin Xero connected — 12 sessions on it.” — with a Choose your sessions → button. No ShotView, no exporting one session at a time.

Your Xero holds up to 50 sessions — usually several range days — so Loadscope asks which ones belong to this ladder. It lists them by time, shot count, average speed and SD, grouped by range day, and pre-selects the block that is most likely your ladder — check the selection, adjust if you shot two ladders that day, and confirm. Loadscope copies the sessions it needs; it never writes to or erases anything on the chronograph.

You do not need the cable every time. Plugging in is the fastest way, but the ShotView route works exactly as it always has — open a session in the ShotView app on your phone, share it out as a CSV (or several at once as .xlsx), and import that file the normal way below. Both paths produce the same result and score identically. Use whichever you have with you.

Importing the files

Any chronograph or target-app export, three ways:

  • Drag onto the Loadscope icon (in the Dock/Applications, or the taskbar on Windows) — it auto-imports.
  • Drag into the Loadscope window, then click Run Import when you are ready. When the import lands, See your results → appears beside it and takes you straight to Results.
  • A Garmin .FIT file works exactly like a CSV — drag one in, or a whole Shot_Sessions folder, if you copied them off the chronograph yourself.

Import individual files, or point Loadscope at a whole range-day folder and it pulls every chronograph and target file inside (subfolders included) — CSV, XLSX, Garmin .fit and ShotMarker .tar alike. Prefer not to drag? Use Browse files… or Browse folder… instead.

Supported chronograph & target apps

Garmin Xero, LabRadar, BallisticX, OnTarget, Silver Mountain / ShotMarker — plus Athlon Rangecraft, and MagnetoSpeed (still in testing, so verify those numbers). The format of every file is detected automatically; you never have to sort them.

Where your files go after import

On a successful import, Loadscope moves the consumed CSVs into a dated Imported CSVs folder (outside your import folders) so your import folders stay clean and the same files never re-import by accident.

Measure Target

Photograph your target and Loadscope measures the group for you, right in the app — then scores it in like an import. No separate target app needed.

The Measure Target page measures your target groups from a photo, right in Loadscope — no separate target app required (though you can still import one if you use it). You load a photo of your target, mark your shots, and Loadscope works out the group — group size, mean radius, vertical — and how far it sits off your aim. Each measured target group flows through the same scoring path as a BallisticX import, so your Results look identical either way.

How it works

  • Bring in your target groups. Two ways: tap Import from phone to pull groups you measured on the Loadscope Ballistics app straight off your phone over Wi-Fi (paired to your charges in order) — or Choose target photos to measure on the desktop. For desktop measuring, pick a photo for each charge, or one photo of a whole sheet with a bull per charge, with a known reference in frame (a ruler, or a 1" grid). Until a photo is loaded the page shows only these buttons; the measuring tools appear once one is in.
  • Set the scale. Drag a line across something a known distance apart — a ruler, or a 1" grid square — then click Set length and type how far it really is. Measure in inches, mm, MOA or mil — pick whichever your target is printed in, and Loadscope converts the rest. Let off early? Just drag again before you confirm.
  • Mark your aim, then tap each shot. Loadscope does the geometry as you go.
  • Add a bull for each charge. Shooting a whole ladder on one target sheet? Click + Add group to drop another bull on the same photo; each bull is numbered and keeps its own charge or seating depth, labeled right on the target and editable. Remove group takes one back off.
  • The test comes from Rifle & Setup. Whether each bull is a charge (grains), a seating depth (CBTO) or a tuner setting follows the test you picked there, and so do the test distance and the bullet size the holes are drawn at. The line above Results shows all three, with a link to change them. A target will not save until a test distance is set. For seating, a jam reads back plainly: positive is jump off the lands, negative is jam into them, zero is touching.
  • Save the target. When the last shot is marked, the bar above the photo tells you to press Save this target — nothing is saved until you do. Each saved bull lands in your scored Results under its charge; your best load is named on the Results page.
Measuring a whole ladder on one target sheet? Use + Add group for each bull and tell Loadscope which charge it is — no handwriting to read. The same works for a seating-depth ladder, one bull per depth.

Prefer to measure on your phone in the field? The Loadscope Ballistics companion app has the same group-measuring tool, and there's a free, standalone Loadscope Measure app if all you want is a group number.

Results

Your best load, scored — not eyeballed.

Loadscope scores every charge and every seating depth across four measurements at once, then highlights the winner. The hero card at the top shows your best load: the winning powder charge at the winning seating depth, plus the numbers it actually produced.

What you see

  • Best-load hero — the suggested charge and CBTO, with measured velocity, SD, group and mean radius.
  • Scoring — velocity vs. charge with shot-to-shot spread bars; the flat-spot pops where the bars tighten. This is also where you adjust the weights.
  • Powder Charges / Seating Depths sub-tabs — each charge or depth scored and ranked, winner tagged. (The full worksheet name sits on the section title inside each tab, for anyone who does open the workbook in Excel.)
  • Barrel Tuner — appears when you shoot a tuner test. Each setting is scored on vertical spread and mean radius, and Loadscope names your best setting along with the run of good settings beside it — or the mark between two good settings, as the tuner maker advises. Shoot 5 shots a setting if you can.

Actions

  • Save this load to Library — keeps the winning load in your Loads library.
  • Generate Recipe Card — a one-page printable recipe in your browser.
  • Save as PDF… — save that card as a PDF.
  • Weights — on the Scoring tab, adjust how much each metric counts; Loadscope re-scores instantly from your existing data, no re-import.

Range & DOPE

A built-in ballistic calculator, checked against Applied Ballistics' own published range card.

Enter your muzzle velocity, ballistic coefficient, zero range, sight height and conditions, and Loadscope predicts your elevation and wind from 100 to 1000 yards. The solver is an industry-standard point-mass model with G1/G7 drag curves — the same class Strelok, GeoBallistics and the free Hornady and Berger calculators run. Measured-drag solvers like Applied Ballistics and Hornady 4DOF pull ahead deep in the transonic.

Inputs

  • Muzzle velocity — measured from your chronograph data, or enter it.
  • Bullet / BC / drag model — pulled from your setup.
  • Zero range and sight height — your rifle's setup.
  • Conditions — temperature, and either the altitude where you shot or, if you carry a weather meter, its station pressure. The page opens on altitude and remembers the one you use. Click Update prediction and Loadscope keeps them for this load — your printed DOPE card uses them too.
  • View — Basic shows elevation, clicks, wind and time of flight. Technical adds spin drift, Coriolis and lead, and a Latitude box for Coriolis.

DOPE Card

A range card that fits your pocket.

The DOPE Card lays out your elevation, wind, drop, velocity, energy and time of flight from 100 to 1000 yards on a clean card. Print it for the bench binder, or Save as PDF. It prints true to size — two 4×6 cards per page with cut guides.

Whose number is it. Under Elevation the card prints two numbers side by side: Pred, what the app worked out, and Dial, what you actually dialed — each with its click count. A dial you confirmed at the range prints bold and is never changed; everything else is the app’s. Once you have dialed two ranges, the ranges between them are worked out from your own corrections, and your correction is carried a little past your longest, to 600 yards and no further. Beyond that the card goes back to a plain prediction rather than guessing. Wind prints as a hold with its own click count, because bench and F-Class shooters dial it off the flags.

The card also names the range past which your bullet goes transonic in those conditions, so you know which end of the card to trust. That is worked out for your cartridge, not a fixed cut-off.

Compare Loads

Which powder and charge actually shot best?

Open Compare Loads from the sidebar, select two or more loads you've saved for the same rifle, and click Compare selected. Loadscope scores each load on velocity SD, mean radius, and vertical SD, then names the winner in plain language.

It is confidence-aware: when the top two loads are within the measurement noise, it says too close to call — shoot more instead of crowning a false winner. This is the honest way to answer "which powder is best in this rifle and bullet" from your real measured results — comparing loads that differ by powder, bullet, or charge.

Compare only loads from the same rifle. Comparing across different rifles is apples-to-oranges, so Loadscope warns you and won't score it. Loads you typed in with Add a Past Load or brought over from your phone are listed but not scored — Compare ranks only groups Loadscope measured.

Libraries

Loads, Targets, Bullets, Rifles, and Barrels — in one place.

The Libraries page has five tabs. Each one has a Delete button so you can clear out anything you no longer want.

Loads

Your whole library of saved loads — every load you crowned a winner, gathered from every workbook into one list. Active loads plus past ones: loads you have archived, or that came up from your phone, show here too, marked Archived, New (phone) or By hand and dimmed so you can tell them apart at a glance. Loads are grouped under each rifle, newest first, with the date each one was saved; click a rifle’s heading to fold it shut or open it again. Type in the filter box to find a load by name, rifle, or powder. Pick a load and use View Recipe Card or View DOPE Card for its recipe or dial card; right-click a row to rename it, to rename its rifle (every load under that rifle follows), to open it, or to choose Enter your actual dials… — which reopens that load on Range & DOPE so you can type what you actually came up at each range, even on a load you already finished. Use Delete load to remove one from the Library — that removes its saved recipe only; the test it came from stays in Past Loads. Print library prints the whole table as a bench reference. The list refreshes on its own after you import loads from your phone. A load that came up from your phone keeps the name you gave it there (or its recipe, if you left that blank).

Targets

Every target photo you measured and saved, grouped by load. Click a load to open its targets.

Bullets

The reference library of bullets Loadscope can predict DOPE for, with each one's published BC and source. Search by maker, weight, or name. If yours is not listed, you can always type a custom BC in Rifle & Setup.

Rifles

Every rifle setup you've saved. Building a rifle in Create New Load files it here automatically, so you can reopen it to start a new load anytime. You can also right-click any saved rifle to start a new load with it, see or compare its loads, print a DOPE card, or duplicate, rename, or delete it. Delete a rifle you've sold or retired.

Barrels

Every barrel with a saved round count, with an editable count. Editing it here updates the same number you see in Rifle & Setup right away; the phone picks it up the next time you sync. Delete a barrel you no longer shoot.

Add a Past Load

The loads you worked up before Loadscope.

Open Add a Past Load from the sidebar and type in a load you already know. Pick a saved rifle, or type the rifle, cartridge, barrel and optic. Then the bullet, powder, charge, primer, brass and seating depth. If you have them, add the muzzle velocity, SD, extreme spread and group size. Click Save to Library, or Save & add another to keep the rifle filled in and type the next one.

The load goes into Libraries › Loads marked By hand, with its own View Recipe Card and View DOPE Card. The DOPE Card needs a muzzle velocity and a BC — from the bullet list, or typed in from the box if your bullet isn't listed. The load you're working on isn't touched.

Loadscope Ballistics (the phone companion)

Your loads and dial in the field.

Loadscope Ballistics is the iPhone and iPad companion. It carries your loads, gives you a live DOPE dial that re-solves as conditions change, lets you record the elevation you actually dialed at each range, and tracks barrel rounds. See Sync with your phone or iPad to move loads between it and the desktop.

Sync with your phone or iPad

Move loads and round counts between the desktop and the phone over your own Wi-Fi — no cloud, no account.

1. Turn on Phone Sync (on the computer)

On the desktop, click Phone Sync at the bottom of the left sidebar so it reads Phone Sync — On (it is also under Support → Phone Sync). Leave it on while you sync. Your computer and phone must be on the same Wi-Fi network. This works the same on a Mac or a Windows PC — the phone drives the sync; the computer just needs to be discoverable.

2. Open Sync (on the phone)

In Loadscope Ballistics, tap Sync at the top-left of the home screen. The app finds your computer by name and connects using your Loadscope license key (enter it once on the phone if it asks).

3. Pull a load to your phone

  • Get a load (pick one) — shows the loads on your computer; tap one to bring it to the phone. One at a time, so you carry only what you want — not everything.

4. Send your range data back to the computer

  • Send round counts & confirmed DOPE — pushes the rounds you shot and the elevations you actually dialed back to the desktop. It merges: round counts add up, and a dial you recorded lands on the matching load's DOPE card. A range you did not send is left alone, and it never overwrites or removes your loads.
It is all local. The data goes phone-to-computer directly over Wi-Fi; nothing is uploaded to a cloud or tied to an account.

If the phone can't find the computer

  • Confirm Phone Sync is ON on the computer (the sidebar button, or Support → Phone Sync).
  • Confirm both devices are on the same Wi-Fi.
  • On the iPhone or iPad, allow Local Network. Go to Settings → Privacy & Security → Local Network and make sure Loadscope Ballistics is turned on. If it is off, the phone can’t find the computer or reach it, even by address.
  • On Windows, allow Loadscope through the firewall. The first time you turn Phone Sync on, Windows asks whether to allow Loadscope on public and private networks — click Allow. If it was cancelled, the phone can’t reach the computer. To fix it, open Windows Defender Firewall → Allow an app through Windows Defender Firewall, find Loadscope, and tick both Private and Public. Still can’t connect? Search the Start menu for Windows Defender Firewall with Advanced Security, click Inbound Rules, and delete any Loadscope rule with a red circle, then turn Phone Sync off and back on.
  • Same license key on both. The phone and the computer must use the same Loadscope license key. If you see “that computer didn’t accept your license key,” make them match: on the phone’s Sync screen tap Change license key, or on the computer use Support → License Key → Change Key. (Your one license activates on up to two computers, so use that same key everywhere.)
  • Connect by address. Some networks (office or guest Wi-Fi) block automatic discovery. When you turn Phone Sync on, the computer shows an address like 192.168.1.42:53740. On the phone’s Sync screen, tap Connect by address and type it in.

Create New Load

The guided way to start a load — plan a ladder, shoot it in order, import your data.

The Create New Load button (bottom of the sidebar) walks you through two set-up steps, and then you shoot and import:

  1. Rifle & setup — pick a saved rifle from the dropdown, or fill it in once.
  2. Plan your ladder — enter your starting charge, the step between charges, and how many charges (or a seating-depth test). Loadscope lays out every load for you.
  3. Shoot & import — shoot the ladder in order (lowest charge to highest, or highest to lowest if you set the plan to High → Low), then import your chronograph data and measure your target groups (or import a target app's export), and click Run Import. Loadscope matches each string to the right charge by shot order and time.

Each new load auto-names itself from your cartridge and bullet (like 6.5 Creedmoor 140 ELD-M) — keep it or rename it. Loadscope keeps one active load at a time: starting a fresh load files your current one away and readies a clean workbook, and the window's title bar and the Home page always show which load you're in. Nothing is deleted — reopen any earlier load with the Past Loads… button on the Loads tab in Libraries. (Libraries lists only loads you saved with Save this load to Library; Past Loads lists every load you have filed away.) To remove a filed-away load, pick it in Past Loads and click Delete — it goes to the Trash, so you can still get it back. If you have an unsaved winner, Loadscope warns you first. A different test always gets its own load. If you import new charges into a load that already has speeds, Loadscope asks first and steers you to a new load, so two tests are never scored together. Choose Add to this test when you shoot more of the same test: the same charges again, or more steps on the same ladder. Need more steps later? Open Plan your ladder on the same load, keep your start and step, and raise how many. Shoot only the new steps, import them, and choose Add to this test. Your earlier steps stay put and everything is scored together. Change the start and it becomes a different test. Adding your chronograph or target data to a load you already started goes straight in with no question.

Reworking a saved load? Use Rework a Saved Load on the Home screen. It opens Create New Load with that load's rifle and setup already filled in — just enter the new charges and import. Your original is kept.

Factory ammo

Test a box of factory ammo, and compare boxes against each other or against your handloads.

Start with + Create New Load (or open Rifle & Setup) and set the test to Factory ammo. Type what's on the box in the Ammo box, like Hornady 140gr ELD Match — that name is what marks the load as factory ammo. The lot number and BC are optional; with a BC the load gets its own DOPE Card. Click Save this ammo. There's no ladder to plan, because nothing is varied.

A box of ammo is one group and one string. Shoot a group over your chronograph, then bring both in:

  • Target — measure the photo in Measure Target, or drop your target app's file on Import Data.
  • Velocities — drop your chronograph file on Import Data. If it holds several sessions, pick the one you shot with this ammo. No file? Click Enter data by hand… and type the speeds.

Results shows the ammo's average velocity, SD, group size, mean radius and vertical SD. Save it to the Library, then use Compare Loads to put boxes side by side, or a box against your handloads. For a second box or lot, start a new load, so each box keeps its own numbers.

Barrel tuner test

Find the best setting for your barrel tuner, on a load that already shoots.

Settle your powder charge and seating depth first — a tuner fine-tunes a load that already shoots. Then open Plan Your Ladder and set Test to Barrel tuner.

  • Start setting — the dial number you start on, usually 0. Your tuner's own instructions say where 0 is.
  • Step (marks) — how many marks you move the tuner between groups. Follow your tuner maker's instructions for how far to move it. Loadscope always counts up from the start setting.
  • Number of steps — how many settings you will shoot. Your tuner maker's instructions say how much of the dial to cover.
  • Shots per string — 5 at each setting if you can. At 3, groups vary so much that settings are hard to tell apart.
  • Marks per turn — how many marks are on your tuner's dial in one full turn. Count them on your tuner. It is how Loadscope knows when a test goes all the way around the dial.

Shoot one group at each setting, in order, with the same load and the same aim. Write the dial number on each target — the number on the tuner, not turns. Then measure the targets in Measure Target (or import them), and Results shows a Barrel Tuner tab with your best setting.

Updates & What's New

Loadscope keeps itself current.

When a new version is available, Loadscope shows a banner; one click downloads and installs it, then relaunches. After it updates, a What's New window shows what changed. You can re-open it anytime from Support → What's New.

How scoring works

Why Loadscope picks the load it does.

Instead of eyeballing one chart, Loadscope scores every charge and seating depth across four measurements at once and combines them into a single score:

  • Velocity flat-spot — where adding powder barely changes velocity (a stable spot in the ladder).
  • Velocity SD — shot-to-shot consistency.
  • Mean radius — how tight the group is, measured fairly.
  • Vertical SD — vertical dispersion, which drives elevation error at distance.

The best combined score wins. Loadscope's automatic weights work for most people, but if you value one thing over another you can change the balance yourself — see below.

Custom weighting (changing how loads are scored)

Loadscope's automatic weights suit most shooters. If you weight things differently, you can — and one click hands the dial back to Loadscope.

The score combines four measurements: flat-spot, velocity SD, mean radius (group), and vertical. Loadscope sets the balance automatically from your test distance — mean radius leads up close, velocity SD takes over at range. Seating depth leans on mean radius, and flat-spot stays a light signal. You never have to touch this — but you can.

To change the weights

  • Go to the Results page. Each test (powder ladder and seating depth) has its own weight card.
  • Type a new percentage into each metric's number box — make velocity matter more, group size less, whatever fits how you shoot. The running total is shown and is balanced to 100% for you.
  • Click Re-score with these weights. Loadscope re-ranks every load instantly from your existing data — no re-import, and may crown a new winner.

To hand the dial back to Loadscope

  • Click Use recommended weights on that test's weight card. It returns to Loadscope's automatic, distance-set weights and re-scores.
Each test is independent — you can tune the powder ladder and leave seating depth on its defaults, or the other way around.

The workbook

Where your numbers live.

Behind the app is a standard Excel workbook with a sheet for each part of the workup — the Powder Charge Log, the Seating Depth Log, the Ballistics sheet, and your Load Library. You never have to open it; the app reads and writes it for you. If you want to, you can open it in Excel, Numbers, or any spreadsheet app.

Troubleshooting

If something is not working.

  • An import did nothing — check the files are actually in your import folders, and that you shot the ladder in the order you planned it (lowest charge to highest, unless you set it to High → Low). Loadscope matches each string to its charge by shot order and time; you never have to name or label a file.
  • Results look empty — you need at least the minimum data; make sure a chronograph file imported and you have at least one group (measured or imported).
  • The phone will not find the computer — confirm Phone Sync is on and both devices are on the same Wi-Fi. On the phone, make sure Local Network is on for Loadscope Ballistics, and on Windows, that Windows Firewall is not blocking Loadscope (see If the phone can’t find the computer).
  • Still stuck — email support@loadscope.app and we will help.
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