For those who believe that...

[MarinePMI]

For those who argue that ballistics programs can be used in lieu of actual live fire confirmation of range dope...

 

How External Ballistics Programs Work

 

There's also some info at this site that some here are aware of, but I'd suspect most are not. Either way, the stuff's a good read and hopefully will generate some constructive (and hopefully cordial) discussions...

[MarinePMI]

No comments or replies? ...Surprising...

[Guest varmartin]

The last paragraph says it all....

 

Well, there you have it. More than any sane person cares to know about how ballistics programs work. In the end, ballistic programs are just another tool. Like all tools, some have more inherent potential than others. However, the ultimate, actual effectiveness of the tool depends mostly on how it’s used (like feeding it accurate inputs). There’s a phrase we use in the modeling and simulation business: ‘Garbage in, Garbage out’. No surprise there.

 

It was also the only paragraph i understood....

[MarinePMI]

LOL!

 

I thought it was an interesting read, and well written. I have known about the effects, but it was nice to see them laid out in a mathematical sense.

 

I used to work on targeting systems (in fact even one of the UK delivered systems in use today) so I guess I was a bit more prepared for the math...

[Vermincinerator]

A great explaination of how ballistic programs are modelled but way over the head of most shooters who are more concerned with what figures come out of the other end.

However, the last chapter covering the actually input has IMO the largest significance to the actual out come.

I know of shooters who use ballistic programs who have never fired a shot over a chrono and use the velocity in the reloading manuals for their input and then wonder why they missed.

I have also heard of guys use a Quickload generated load and then use the accompanied generated velocity as the input for Exbal

Like has been explained the Ballistic program is an excellent tool but needs a certain amount of correct user input to function properly but it will never be a replacement for real bullet drop.

 

Ian.

[MarinePMI]

V,

 

Yeah, the thing that piqued my interest was one of the other articles (I think) that looked at the VLD type bullets and determined the G7 form factor was much more representative than the standard G1 that most BC's use.

 

Of note, Quickload does allow tweaking the form factor and many of the data points that Brian mentions in his article (though coriolis effect and spin drift are still not accounted for). to do this though, you'd need to build a custom bullet file to tweak everything (IIRC).