Alan Griffith
Well-Known Member
I just sold my Leica 1600-B last week to a young and up coming LR shooter in Oregon. Hope he likes it! I replaced the 1600-B with the Gunwerks G7 BR2. WOW! What a piece of equipment. Basically, it's a fantastic LRF that I've gotten ranges over 2000 yards even on bright sunny days. It's also an inclinometer to measure up/down angles, temperature gage, barometer and ballistic computer all wrapped up into one nifty piece of equipment.
I'm a long range competitor, competing in sniper matches where we shoot steel and sometimes paper targets out to, so far, 1150 yds. Don't typically get 2nd shots if you miss the 1st. So, your rifle and data need to be dead nuts "ON"! Two weeks back i competed in the Challenge at Altitude, here in the West end of the Uintah mountains of Utah. Two days of shooting at altitudes of 7000 to 8000 ft. Typical target scenario is 2-10 targets to be hit in 5 minutes or less which sometimes included moving 2-3 times between targets. You've got 5 minutes to locate, range, compute drops and hit the targets; sometimes moving to another shooting position is a possibility. Typically, a competitor, ranges the target and either uses a pre-printed drop chart or runs a ballistic calculator of some type or another to get precise drops. This all takes time. Time to pull this stuff out of your pack, set it up, use it, then apply it while shooting. A pre-printed drop chart is very nice and quick but cannot take into account a weather front which may move the temp and/or barometric pressures way up or down, throwing off your nicely printed chart. Also, their typically is no way to quickly compute the necessary yardage reductions when shooting up/down angles.
With my new Gunwerks G7 BR2, before the match, I simply check my zero (determined by you, not the BR2), shooting about 5-10 rounds over my chronograph. I then plug in exact data into the BR2; G1 or G7 Ballistic model, exact ballistic coefficient of the bullet, average velocity from the chronograph. I hit the Mode or "save" button and 14 seconds later a new computer program is ready to run. The BR2 will store 5 different ballistic profiles. So, during the competition, I either hand hold for close targets or screw it down on my PRS Slik tripod and start ranging targets WAY out there. The drop is given in about 2 seconds through the LRF's lens. Dial and shoot. If their is wind to deal with (when is their not?), push another button and it will give me wind hold values in MOA, in 5 mph increments up to 50 mph. What used to take me a minute or more sometimes now takes mere seconds. The BR2 has 7x glass and is decent quality. The laser is quite strong and readily works in various lighting conditions. One of the things I hated about the Swaro was it's weak LED readout in bright light. Light green and I could barely read the yardage many times. The BR2 has an option to adjust to 4 different brightness levels for early/late twilight to bright midday sun.
The internal ballistic computer will give drops to 1400 yards. If you need more than that, you still range the target then hit a few buttons and you can pull incline angle, temp and baro pressure along with the range. With this data you can still manually input the data into your hand held ballistic calc to make the shot.
Just yesterday am, I took a friends rifle in 6.5x47 that I had completed all the load development for. I needed to remount the scope, using lower rings and installing a level bubble on the scope. This rifle will pull 5 shots into .3 moa if I do my part. After 11 shots over the chronograph I took out my BR2 and entered the data; vel, bc, zero range (80 yards). I then ranged a small shoe box sized rock at 1089 yards, 10.6 deg up angle, dialed 28.5 min (the BR2 told me 28.4 minutes). With two witnesses I hit the rock over and over. I let the witnesses try it too; with successful hits. These are guys who have probably never shot over 100 yds in their lives. I wanted to push it a bit so I found a round spot, about the size of a dinner plate on a rock face @ 1235 yards and dialed in 35.25 moa. Smack, smack, smack, smack.
I LOVE THIS FRICKIN RANGE FINDER!!!!!
Alan
I'm a long range competitor, competing in sniper matches where we shoot steel and sometimes paper targets out to, so far, 1150 yds. Don't typically get 2nd shots if you miss the 1st. So, your rifle and data need to be dead nuts "ON"! Two weeks back i competed in the Challenge at Altitude, here in the West end of the Uintah mountains of Utah. Two days of shooting at altitudes of 7000 to 8000 ft. Typical target scenario is 2-10 targets to be hit in 5 minutes or less which sometimes included moving 2-3 times between targets. You've got 5 minutes to locate, range, compute drops and hit the targets; sometimes moving to another shooting position is a possibility. Typically, a competitor, ranges the target and either uses a pre-printed drop chart or runs a ballistic calculator of some type or another to get precise drops. This all takes time. Time to pull this stuff out of your pack, set it up, use it, then apply it while shooting. A pre-printed drop chart is very nice and quick but cannot take into account a weather front which may move the temp and/or barometric pressures way up or down, throwing off your nicely printed chart. Also, their typically is no way to quickly compute the necessary yardage reductions when shooting up/down angles.
With my new Gunwerks G7 BR2, before the match, I simply check my zero (determined by you, not the BR2), shooting about 5-10 rounds over my chronograph. I then plug in exact data into the BR2; G1 or G7 Ballistic model, exact ballistic coefficient of the bullet, average velocity from the chronograph. I hit the Mode or "save" button and 14 seconds later a new computer program is ready to run. The BR2 will store 5 different ballistic profiles. So, during the competition, I either hand hold for close targets or screw it down on my PRS Slik tripod and start ranging targets WAY out there. The drop is given in about 2 seconds through the LRF's lens. Dial and shoot. If their is wind to deal with (when is their not?), push another button and it will give me wind hold values in MOA, in 5 mph increments up to 50 mph. What used to take me a minute or more sometimes now takes mere seconds. The BR2 has 7x glass and is decent quality. The laser is quite strong and readily works in various lighting conditions. One of the things I hated about the Swaro was it's weak LED readout in bright light. Light green and I could barely read the yardage many times. The BR2 has an option to adjust to 4 different brightness levels for early/late twilight to bright midday sun.
The internal ballistic computer will give drops to 1400 yards. If you need more than that, you still range the target then hit a few buttons and you can pull incline angle, temp and baro pressure along with the range. With this data you can still manually input the data into your hand held ballistic calc to make the shot.
Just yesterday am, I took a friends rifle in 6.5x47 that I had completed all the load development for. I needed to remount the scope, using lower rings and installing a level bubble on the scope. This rifle will pull 5 shots into .3 moa if I do my part. After 11 shots over the chronograph I took out my BR2 and entered the data; vel, bc, zero range (80 yards). I then ranged a small shoe box sized rock at 1089 yards, 10.6 deg up angle, dialed 28.5 min (the BR2 told me 28.4 minutes). With two witnesses I hit the rock over and over. I let the witnesses try it too; with successful hits. These are guys who have probably never shot over 100 yds in their lives. I wanted to push it a bit so I found a round spot, about the size of a dinner plate on a rock face @ 1235 yards and dialed in 35.25 moa. Smack, smack, smack, smack.
I LOVE THIS FRICKIN RANGE FINDER!!!!!
Alan
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