Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Long Range Hunting Which Kestrel?

Thank you, Tyler.

I believe it prudent to gun a "real" atmosphere initially(obviously),meaning don't get greedy in Death Vally or K2 and simply allow Physics,to do what they ALWAYS do and that's connect fhuqking dots. Hint.

Armchair an initial velocity,that's your best gut hunch info and then simply let the projectile extrapolate what's ACTUALLY happening. No chronograph involved. Hint..................

Read a lot about these wind meters, and lots of people use them. I haven`t, as I`ve yet to figure how the thing tells you what`s happening at the target, or half way to the target. Anyone know?

Wind meters are barely better than useless in most hunting situations.

Buying a Kestrel to "tell wind direction",is akin to buying a calculator,because you like to lick the number 9. Hint. Congratulations?!?...............

so with a Kestrel 5700 which i know nothing about . can a person punch in bullet size plus grain weight and its G1 OR G7 , ITS fps , then hold this device in the air and will it then give you what that bullet will do at each 100- 1000 yardage at that moment. and or does it have a memory for some of the bullets a person uses too ?

It's a ballistic calculator like any other...you have manually enter everything that effects the bullet. It then saves a profile of that bullet at the speed and bc you've entered (it saves up to three profiles). You definitely need to get real dope and then use it to tweak the BC you've manually entered into the machine.

The scenarios where they work well are in very open terrain and close to full value winds at a fairly constant speed and also where you can stand up and wave the thing around over your head. If you shoot a lot, especially in any sort of mixed terrain, and the wind isn't pretty close to full value, and is changing speed and direction like wind does, the only thing you can trust is your own wind calls.

There's only one place I shoot where I even take the kestrel out.

I find AE wayyyyyyyyyy more intuitive and far friendlier and the kestrel is never really in tow. It's Base 10 wind for me and the reticle tells me what's going on,without fail,in regards to the critique of an initial call. Hint..................

Having drop and windage in Mil, together with an FFP MRAD, is priceless. Irrelevant of what you use to measure range.

well i am kinda confused ? but thanks guys

Shooting P-dogs at absurd distances with one guy spotting and giving come ups with a Sig Kilo 3000 via blue tooth dope from a Kestrel is one of the most fun things a guy cab do with a rifle in his hands.

I guess my question would be, how many using Kestrels for shooting, are using them for hunting also?
Used to be they were called wind meters.
Now they offer more features than just telling you the wind direction and speed at the place you happen to be standing.
But then some rangefinders are offering those features also today, except for wind speed where you happen to be standing.
Long range target shooting is a whole different subject than shooting at live animals at long range.
Difference being a stationary target as compared to a target that has the ability to move at any time in any direction.
Therefore time is always critical when shooting at animals, the shot you have now might well be gone in a few seconds.
The very best solution for every shooting situation is a sighter shot.
And a first round miss is exactly that.
Not saying that you shouldnt prepare for a first round hit, and inside 500 yards, very little preparation should be necessary anyway.
Again, just go shoot, then decide what you need to do it better.

I've never been in a situation,where someone else is giving me "DOPE" for my rifle. Wind is oft mused aloud and other(s) may be ranging ala LRF,but never come-ups,nor can I fathom a scenario for same. Hint.................

Can't answer, "...my question would be, how many using Kestrels for shooting, are using them for hunting also?" directly, but I can tell you how I use mine. I live at sea level and travel to much higher elevations for many of my hunts. At home the Kestrel is used to calibrate, or fine tune the ballistic solutions on my rifles. When I travel for a hunt the first thing I do upon arrival is measure the atmospherics with the Kestrel and update my range card for the new location. This approach has worked very well for me the past several years.

I'd like to simplify the process a bit and just use a good set of range finding binos with atmospheric sensors but that hasn't worked out quite as well. I've tried the SIG KILO 3000, Leica 3200.com and Leica Pro and the Swarovski EL Range TA and all have issues. Of these the Swarovski looks like it will work the best, but it take some work adjusting the BC to get its ballistic curves to approximate the Kestrel AB solution.

Trying to get on the same Pdog, range it, look at phone, wake phone up, dial dope only to have said Pdog running off was a whole lot clumsier than using the Kestrel and Sig combo. A bit of practice in said scenario would have helped, but it was fun as fugg for a couple of mouth breathers.

If I'd have had dope on my stock further out it would have been easier but I didn't.

Interesting "approach". Hint.(grin)

Now if only for conversation,let's Start At The Fhuqking Start:

"So for clarity,what are the SPECIFICS of said platform,you are wanting to Gadgetize? Rifle Make/Model,RPM,COAL,what's it fed from,mounting system,optic,ammo and how does it shoot,in your mitts. What's the application and how much do you shoot same? What LRF are you driving? KNOW going in,that little to none of that is going to be fhuqking "favorable",so holster your Hurt Tender Feelers welllllll in advance. Hint.

Dots are EASILY connected,less any fhuqking Fluff. Proficiency can NOT be purchased and spent primers remain THE SUPREME Tutorial. Hint."

As an absolute minimum,I never don't have DOPE to The Transonic Slip and typically a zipcode beyond,if only as starters. Hint.............

Stick, you’re right. We didn’t have any fun.

Perhaps one can upgrade their Kestrel,to upload Hurt Feeler Reports too?!? Hint.(grin)

Now if only for conversation,let's Start At The Fhuqking Start:

"So for clarity,what are the SPECIFICS of said platform,you are wanting to Gadgetize? Rifle Make/Model,RPM,COAL,what's it fed from,mounting system,optic,ammo and how does it shoot,in your mitts. What's the application and how much do you shoot same? What LRF are you driving? KNOW going in,that little to none of that is going to be fhuqking "favorable",so holster your Hurt Tender Feelers welllllll in advance. Hint.

Dots are EASILY connected,less any fhuqking Fluff. Proficiency can NOT be purchased and spent primers remain THE SUPREME Tutorial. Hint."

As an absolute minimum,I never don't have DOPE to The Transonic Slip and typically a zipcode beyond,if only as starters. Hint.............

I use a chrono when I’m working on a load that’s “off the books”, like this winter when it was VV N568 w/147’s in my 6.5 GAP, or RS Mag with 140’s, or RS Mag in the 7 WSM, just because there’s little or no published data and blowing up a good rifle would suck. But they were close enough on the burn chart to powders with published data, to rate a try, and they were available (the N568 rocks FYI). But that’s about where it starts and ends with the chrono for me.

From there I go to one of my spots; my new one this winter got me to 1k yards and has lots of patches of bare dirt to shoot at, which are very useful, but are in very short supply in my part of the Coast Range. Even though I slum SFP I can see my impacts if I turn the scopes to 1/2 power, and quickly correct my Ballistic AE dope to match my actual results with just slightly more head scratching than FFP.

(I correct it by changing the input velocity until it matches my observed POI, but I’ve always wondered if that was the “best” parameter to mess with? )

I will say, you want to do this many times (aka: burn primers) even if just at the same spot, but ideally at many spots, because up- and down-drafts are a thing. POI will be a little different from day to day, at least in my experience. You have to kind of average it out. As far as a Kestrel, the wind is all over the place across a Coast Range canyon, it’s sometimes blowing the opposite direction at the target compared to where I’m at... so I don’t see much point.

My truck got broken into last time I was at my new spot, and [bleep] Weyerhouser just posted near the shooting position for my other spot, so until some Good Samaritan rips that sign down I’m fishin’, lol. Ocean coho is on...... plus it’s too damn hot to shoot anyway.

Karma is a bitch.
Hopefully she continues to rain upon you.