Hey guys, as anyone ever tried or own the Kestrel Ballistic wind meter? I am thinking of getting one. The only question I have is why would you have to true your MV, as you would have entered the true MV after you got it from a chrony? Or am I missing something in regards to the trueing MV step. Any thoughts on this? Thanks in advance.
Kestrel applied ballistic wind meter
- Thread starter shockwave
- Start date
calgarycanada
CGN Regular
- Location
- Calgary, Canada
IMHO Chrony is not 100% accurate and BC of bullets is (very) slightly different from factory tested/estimated BC(even lot to lot), that's why you have to tweak inputs slightly to match your trajectory.
ultimate_monkey
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
- Location
- victoria BC
As said chrony isn't 100% and manufactures tend to embellish the BC of their bullets just a tiny bit . Your output is only as good as your input but measuring devices that are hobby grade (aka almost any affordable chrony) are only so accurate . So truing is required
If you take time to accurately enter all the info including scope height and then true your info out past 600 or so I've found mine to be within a couple clicks at just over 1600 yards. They are a great peice of kit to reach way out there. If you don't already have a good range finder the g7 br2 is probably the next best thing to a terrapin for 1/3 the price and will give you just as accurate solutions out to 1400 yards with the exception of averaging muzzle velocity over different temperatures
I was just reading more on the kestrel applied ballistic and did some comparison with kestrel Horus, I think the applied system would take a little more work, but in the end I think it would be better, or am I out to lunch. Do you know of anyone in Canada that sells these?
ultimate_monkey
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
- Location
- victoria BC
scout base camp sell the kestrel w/ ballistic calculators
I couldn't be happier with my AB Kestrel. The firing solutions have been bang on or like someone else said within a click or two. The best part is it has the Litz corrected BC's for most of the popular long range bullets.
I assume the applied ballistics version should be more accurate since it uses the g7 profile instead of the g1 on my horus version but I doubt I could tell the difference as there is just too many other variables when you get out to distance.
As mentioned scout base camp carries these as well as Alberta tactical that I know of.
- Location
- calgary alberta
We also carry them and use them for shooting.
The Horus version is looking like it will be discontinued according to sources at NK.
These are very powerful tools in the aid of LR shooting. They do certainly take some work to get all of the real world data into them , but once you get it in and then tweaked for your actual velocity and BC they work like a charm for extremely precise cold bore shots.
Most serious shooters have chronographs as they have great value for not only determining velocity for ballistics charts, but also for consistency of load.
- Location
- Somewhere on the Hudson Bay Coast
I've used, although I don't own the Horus A-Trag version of the Kestral. My only complaint was that the screen seemed a bit small and hard to read in very bright sunlight. What does take a bit of getting used to is that because the atmospheric readings are constant, the firing solution is in a state of flux, and sometimes the variations are significant. IIRC, there is a correction that can be applied for variances in chronograph readings and BCs.
- Location
- calgary alberta
Agreed the screen being a little bigger and with a better contrast would be nice.
You can correct for the variances in velocity and BC
Thanks for all your comments on this topic. I use the EXBAl program from night force, so far it has not lied to me. But with that being said, I would like to have the ballistic system and wind meter all in one. The Kestrel with the applied ballistic system is looking good.
- Location
- Somewhere on the Hudson Bay Coast
Another interesting low cost option, that doesn't require batteries, is Accuracy 1st's whiz wheel. You send them your ballistic data for 3 different loads, or loads for 3 different cartridges, and they will make you up a whiz wheel that takes into account: barometric pressure, wind, spin drift, moving target holds, inclination correction, and velocity corrections for +/- 50 fps which provides a correction for chronograph readings or BC. Firing solutions are provided for short, medium, and long range. The card I have on mine right now is for a Matrix .308/210 gr VLD with a G7 BC of 0.326 and a velocity of 2650 fps. You get to choose the values the wheel is calibrated for, so I chose to have the firing solution based on yards and the correction in mils, the maximum range that this wheel can calculate for is 1560 yards. The day this thing arrived, my wife and I went out to the range, it was a warm calm evening, lazed the 12" steel at 850 yards, plugged the data into the whiz wheel, got a firing solution of 7 mils, put 7 mils on the scope, sighted, pressed the trigger and a few seconds later was rewarded with a solid clang! "Well, that was boring, I guess we can go home."
