I track simple rounds fired over time and note next to the dates when I cleaned the gun or something broke/was replaced. Anything other than that and I'd get bored out of my skull.
Computers do porno and giant robots shooting at each other too, just saying.
Semper Gumby, Always Flexible
That's where I started..tracking just # of rounds shot and pistol cleanings. But I've found that I want a bit more.Originally Posted by Peally
One of my goals is for quick, accurate data entry so that updating/upkeeping the system is not boring or time-consuming. I want to be able to enter all data for a shooting session, including rounds shot, match results, cleaning & equipment failures, in 5 minutes or less. My initial/current spreadsheet requires only a single line entry BUT is slightly incomplete as far as "stock" inventory, tracking the conditions of and modifications to weapons & accessories, ammo on-order/cost-per-round, etc.. If I can get down to a 1 or 2 screen data entry in Access, then I'll have accomplished something.
YMMV
<NerdGasm>
One of the best parts was figuring out how to do it without crushing some seriously heavy iron. I do all my work a Windows TS VM. The host box: dual X5660 (16 vCores total), 120GB of ram, and 14 spindles on two RAID controllers. there's 16GB ram dedicated to the TS VM to start with(dynamic memory), has the highest priority of all VMs, and it has 8 cores marked for it. If you can crush something like that with an excel spreadsheet with only a couple dozen really "interesting" formulas, you're doing something wrongThe answer was to compute the $/rnd for each purchase transaction and THEN do the MIN/MAX/AVG lookups across the array.
Speaking of the MIN/MAX/AVG... I love having that info when it comes time to buy more, or when a vendor says they have a "sale" going on. Being able to call SHENANIGANS on that has saved me some cash over the years.
I factor in shipping costs as well, splitting it based on percentage of ammo vs. pre-shipping price.
I need to go back in and add the gun buy dates and prices, just to make me cry even more
</NerdGasm>
Lol. Great term, never heard it before! I like your explanation and am jealous of your technology access; I haven't had access to anything other than a mid-tech desktop or a laptop in 20 years. I miss the big, room-size hardware I use to play with!
In my case, I'm hoping to "have fun" (re-)learning VBA. It's been a few years since I've played with it. Right now, I'm trying to decide just how many small, lookup tables to use and how much to hard-code directly into data entry forms.
One of the programs I mentioned above has something like 200+ ammo types which I believe is overkill for pretty much anyone's purposes - most certainly about 4x anything I can imagine needing especially since I don't reload. So they certainly use a separate table for that, but also have a total of 28 separate, modifiable tables for a variety of things. Still reverse-engineering how they have structured other parts of their system. So far, still fun!
Been playing around with the database design and finally came up with the "Shooting Perspective" view of the table relationships that I'm working with. I'd been going round and round in designing this by focusing on the weapon itself rather than looking at the system I want to have from the perspective of tracking data to document and analyze my shooting. Obviously, it's still a work in progress and the layout is not "field(s) complete", but it shows where I'm going, I think.
Oops, looks like I left out an arrow connecting the Weapon (a details file) to the Manufacturers table that will provide link info (ID, Name & Addr).
Added
Note: Fwiw, This is a Visio-created illustration, not an actual Access Relationship diagram.
Also, the SubSession table allows for tracking/indication of changes in lane, weapon, distance, caliber, target, competition stage, etc. within a single day/shooting session. It would even allow me to track shooting inside after the weather crashed an outside shooting session.
Not on this diagram is the tracking of ammo purchases and current ammo inventory.
I see that I also need to rename the top rightmost file to reflect that it will contain ALL addresses, not just WeaponMfg's and AmmorMfg's
Last edited by drmweaver2; 09-30-2016 at 07:34 PM.
Just for comparison, and I'm not trying or intending to turn this into a database/computer forum, here's the Visio drawing I made of an "Ammo Inventory Relationship Perspective. Again, it's not complete in terms of all necessary or desired fields, but it gives the idea of what's needed and how things can be split up and related to each other for max flexibility and minimal duplication of data.
Some of the not included data fields are in the AmmoDetails table - things like weight/grain, bullet/projectile material, bullet shape, muzzle velocity, etc.
Comments welcome...if there aren't any, I'll just go work silently in the background and assume there's no interest or that this is viewed as too off-topic for this forum. No insult will be taken.
241................
http://www.ebay.com/itm/HP-DL380-G6-...MAAOSw4shX2t-v
I bet you've spent more on ammo in a given day than that thing costs.
That's not an anomaly price either. If anyone wants or need Big Iron crushing power, it's stupidly cheap out there now. The nice thing about those boxes is, they just don't break.
added this...
felt it might be nice to know, given the current shenanigans. could help my decisions in the future.
Nice.
I've gone back and forth through my "database normalization" 3 times now, actually tossing out all previous work and starting completely over. I think that I've finally "not over-thunk it" (broken the data groups into tables so small they will over-complicate basic functions like adding, editing, searching and deleting ultimately degrading overall performance). Sorta like over-thinking how to shoot accurately (blank the mind and just do it seems to work best for me).
Changing my perspective to "from the range to the inventory" seems to have made the difference. Ya can't shoot what you don't own! But it starts with shooting and then branches out/backwards from there... to storage locations, which manufacturers made what model, how many rounds had to have been bought to be shot and tracking what has been bought but not yet shot (ala your last post) and on and on. I have a notebook with page after page of what I want (baseic info- and analysis-wise) and what's needed to get there notes. Jumping right in without those types of notes was a mistake I've made all too often in multiple things - software design, shooting (no lessons or dry-fire practice at first, just range time), downhill snow ski racing (self-taught amatuer racer who wound up being a B skier nationally)...like I said, on and on.
So, "we" continue...the royal "we" that is.
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Last edited by drmweaver2; 10-09-2016 at 10:59 AM.
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