It's just hyperventilating over BC that makes little diff for those shooting 500 yards or less, but the forum is Long Range Hunting, so dudes here want to play at shooting to 1000 or even 1500 yards and beyond. Like you, many did that before the they had computers.
Having a buddy watch bullet vapor trails and correcting hold works great if your target doesn�t run off. To increase the odds from nothing to something at hitting game on the first shot some shooters play on their computers finding the best bullets for their guns. Don�t get me wrong, you learn lots playing with ballistics programs, but using them for first shot hits at long range is a crap shoot. Just a bit more or less wind puts the bullet off target and few if any can read the wind accurately at a 1000 yards.
Seen on TV where a marine sniper was trying to duplicate a famous long shot, but conditions were different and they couldn�t even see where their shots were hitting the side of a mountain. No vapor trails that day in the desert. Future guns may be equipped with radar bullet trackers
