By Glen Wunderlich
Charter Member Professional Outdoor Media Association (POMA)
Years ago, Firestone produced a television commercial with these notorious words: Where the rubber meets the road. The phrase focused on the point where their tires were put to the test. Similarly, all ammunition has a parallel, as a projectile is launched toward a target. This phenomenon has many parts and understanding the mystical flight of a bullet is necessary to develop confidence at the range and afield.
The science of ballistics, when expertly applied, can add to one’s ability to hit targets with consistent accuracy. The average shooter may look up available data from ammunition manufacturers’ websites, or simply rely upon what’s printed on ammo boxes. The trouble is that these figures are developed with long test barrels indoors and often have little resemblance to field-condition results.
Enter the chronograph – a sophisticated electronic device that measures actual muzzle velocity using one’s chosen firearm and ammo. Current prices start at $130 for basic units and go up from there. Even when ammo only cost an arm, it made sense for accuracy nuts to verify their own personal results; today, however, each squeeze of the trigger can be felt deep in one’s wallet. Having a chronograph can minimize unnecessary experimentation and the corresponding pinch in the pants.
Innovative technology has produced a couple of apps that go hand-in-hand with not only competitive shooters, but hunters alike. One comes from Lapua – producer of the finest bullets, cartridge cases, and ammunition for competitive shooting – with its new Lapua Hunt app available for download in Google Play and the iStore.
Lapua Hunt is the new digital solver for hunters that appreciate ethical hunting, accuracy, and safety. Merely add your own rifle and reticle, select the best ammo and game category, and you are ready to enjoy your hunting success harvesting game of all sizes.
Lapua Hunt’s calculator view allows you to determine wind speed and direction, shooting angle and distance. In addition, you may also input weather information, (i.e. temperature, air pressure and relative humidity) for further solving. Additional paid features allow cartography/map view, and the ability to setup a hunting team.
When you use the teams function together with all members in your hunting party (i.e. ‘team’), you can keep an eye on the exact location of all team members in the map view. Moreover, if any other hunter in the same area uses the Lapua Hunt app, they will be visible as ‘Unknowns’ in your map view as well.
In the app, there is the option to buy extra features for an annual cost. The Pro Hunter feature package includes all features that are available in the application and costs $19.99 per year.
Federal also offers two great apps that give hunters and shooters the modern tools they need to perform superbly in the field and on the range. Its “Ballistic” is the definitive ballistics calculator for iOS devices. This app calculates trajectory, windage, velocity, energy, lead, and bullet flight time for any valid range. Ballistic can compensate for atmospheric conditions such as temperature, barometric pressure, humidity, altitude and more.
With a library of more than 5,000 projectiles and factory loads, as well as advanced features including a mil-dot and rangefinder, GPS, atmosphere awareness, full-size charts, a precision target log and far more, Ballistic is a complete precision marksman tool. A comprehensive video tutorial is available at www.federalpremium.com by clicking on Our Apps and the free app is available through iTunes.
If you are going to the extent of employing either app, extreme accuracy is more achievable with known velocities derived from a chronograph, rather than reliance upon input from generic sources. In any event, it’s all out there and it’s your move.
The Operator Course requires the ability to stand for long periods of time, to shoot on the move along with the ability to move into and recover quickly from kneeling and prone positions.
