State of the Art in Long Range Shooting

[Jeff Higgins]

https://kestrelmeters.com/products/kestrel-elite-weather-meter-with-applied-ballistics

The Kestrel 5700 Elite Weather Meter with Applied Ballistics is a comprehensive weather meter for measurement and logging of primary environmental conditions, including wind speed and direction, temperature, humidity, heat index, pressure, and altitude. It also contains a powerful ballistics calculator to help you hit your long-range shot on the first try.

Here is an excellent (although somewhat long) video demonstrating its use:



In a nutshell, this little gizmo, when programmed with information pertinent to the load you are shooting (muzzle velocity and ballistic coefficient), will give you sight corrections at any range under any weather conditions that will pretty much ensure a first shot hit, assuming you do your part. You set it up remotely, up to 100 yards away, and it communicates the needed corrections to your smart phone.

I well remember learning to play the long range black powder cartridge rifle game in the early ’90’s. I remember pouring over and memorizing the “rosette” charts showing correction values for wind speed and direction. I remember painstakingly shooting at ranges out to 1,000 yards in 100 yard increments and recording our elevation “come-ups” for various bullets and powder charges. Then the interaction between spotter and shooter at the matches, the need for precise meanings in our back and forth communications, as we used the charts we had developed for our own rifles and the feedback from the spotter to correct for weather and light conditions. It took years of going to the matches and being mentored by the old hands to even begin to become proficient, much less competitive with them. It was a very hard won skill.

It appears that today, as it has become with so many similarly hard won skills, one can simply purchase an electronic "crutch" that allows one to bypass all of that. Kind of like all of the electronic "nannies" on modern Porsches that will make anyone look like a hero at the local track day.

Oh well. I do definitely see where something like this would be invaluable for our military personnel, where they are shooting for bigger "prizes" than plastic bowling trophies. And, I can see where it would be fun and interesting in the manner in which the guy in the video is approaching it. In the hunting field, or at the matches? No. Just no. Definitely "cheating" at the matches, and I'm afraid just one more thing encouraging the horribly unethical sport of "long range hunting". Cool little gadget, though...