Gear advice?

[Daves762]

I'm shooting a remi-700 in 308 with a Mark 4 6.5-20x50mm. bullet is a 178
A-max.

Im getting the chrony in the mail tomarrow so I will have a true FPS input for my ballistics calculator software on my laptop.

My question to you is two-fold.

#1 can I estimate temp. and barametric pressure? and still make hits at 800yds? with 308? I ask you this because I would have to get a phone upgrade and kestrel wind/barametric meter to do the calculations in my hunting area OR do them before I go using google earth to get my aproximate elevation, and aproximate weather conditions. So how much do exact elevation and barometric pressure effect bullet flight in a hunting situation?

#2 If I was to get the Droid with the shooter app. I can then make more detailed inputs and calculate on the spot but I have to get the phone upgrade, buy the kestrel meter and learn to use all of the above before the hunt.
I am too far invested to get cheap now but I dont want to buy a bunch of gear I don't really NEED.
I would appreciate your knowledge and opinion.
Thanks-Dave

 

[WildRose]

I'm shooting a remi-700 in 308 with a Mark 4 6.5-20x50mm. bullet is a 178
A-max.

Im getting the chrony in the mail tomarrow so I will have a true FPS input for my ballistics calculator software on my laptop.

My question to you is two-fold.

#1 can I estimate temp. and barametric pressure? and still make hits at 800yds? with 308? I ask you this because I would have to get a phone upgrade and kestrel wind/barametric meter to do the calculations in my hunting area OR do them before I go using google earth to get my aproximate elevation, and aproximate weather conditions. So how much do exact elevation and barometric pressure effect bullet flight in a hunting situation?

#2 If I was to get the Droid with the shooter app. I can then make more detailed inputs and calculate on the spot but I have to get the phone upgrade, buy the kestrel meter and learn to use all of the above before the hunt.
I am too far invested to get cheap now but I dont want to buy a bunch of gear I don't really NEED.
I would appreciate your knowledge and opinion.
Thanks-Dave

Yes you can hit consistently and well at 800yds without a portable weather station. The more precise your inputs are, the better precision you will get, but we were making thousdand yard and beyond shots long before all of the new cool high tech gear came along.

 

[rscott5028]

You can print several drop charts ahead of time for varying conditions.

Here's another option...
New Whiz Wheel Ballistics Solver for Custom and Standard Loads « Daily Bulletin

-- richard

 

[Daves762]

Yes you can hit consistently and well at 800yds without a portable weather station. The more precise your inputs are, the better precision you will get, but we were making thousdand yard and beyond shots long before all of the new cool high tech gear came along.

Thanks. How do you guys calculate humidity, temp, elevation into the long form?


For instance can I use the weather service to get barometric pressure, temp, humidity, and estimate elevation, say 9000ft, enter this into my balistics program, print the data, then go deer hunting 72 hours later and be close enough to make reliable hits? How acurate did you guys calculate your data to make those 800+ yard hits.??
Thanks.

 

[bigngreen]

Spring for the Kestrel, if your shooting steel or targets not a big deal but your hunting, you need good data and you need good wind speed you owe it to game to do the best you can!!

That was a little harsher than I was intending, you can make hits at that range but with at least the Kestrel or a Brunton you can get some vital data to use with cards or what ever you use to dope with. I've done the Google earth thing and printed up charts for different stands then had a temp chart to tweak the DA to that moment, I've ran generic charts of and guesstimated wind and other data and it has cost me deer that should have been taken and it has cost me to much time and not gotten the shot I should have because I was screwing with papers and charts and by the time I have a dope the deer has moved. IMO a Kestrel or similar is an essential piece of gear if only from the stand point of getting you a wind velocity to work with, wind will kick your butt more than anything!

The areas I hunt can change about 5000ft in elevation and change 40 degrees in temp fairly fast, I can go from shooting up hill to shooting down hill, I have a lot of variables that can change a lot of stuff, someone shooting deer in a bean field in the mid west may not have a quarter the variable I do so that is something to think about as well.

 

[WildRose]

Thanks. How do you guys calculate humidity, temp, elevation into the long form?


For instance can I use the weather service to get barometric pressure, temp, humidity, and estimate elevation, say 9000ft, enter this into my balistics program, print the data, then go deer hunting 72 hours later and be close enough to make reliable hits? How acurate did you guys calculate your data to make those 800+ yard hits.??
Thanks.

Simply by keeping cpious records of practice under all conditions, and taking a those notes along. Also I'd always keep a drop chart that I'd laminated taped to the butt stock.

From the data collected we'd make corrections to the known drops as needed.

 

[rcdinaz]

If you get a droid phone with or without shooter you can use the GPS and the closest weather station to get all the info you asked about, even without the GPS you can get a cell update via weatherbug or similar. Of course if you are very remote you will not be able o get a signal but before I go out I try and know what the altitude, baro, and temp usually is for where I am hunting. You can also do all of this with most of the garmin GPS units, or a watch that has these functions.

The one nice thing you get with the android is the inclinometer as well, which puts the info directly into Shooter.

I agree with what was said though... no substitute for a lot of practice and a system to keep good notes.