This is a great question and I will answer it for you based on my experience in the field at matches and hunting. The kestrel is a neat little device I even bought one thinking i must have one. I soon realized I don't. If your ballistic solving Binos have environmental measuring devices incorporated you don't need one. I run with the zeiss vicotry RF and have some SIg 10k as well. I prefer the zeiss because of glass quality and consistency. Swarovski, Leica, Vortex, Vectronix…all have a version. Now here's the answer to your question and I will probably hurt some feelings. Don't buy a kesteral!! Waste of money!!! As you stated other wind meters exist. The best one for shooting is an orange bottle filled with baby powder that costs 3 bucks. Learn to gauge wind with your brain not a device. Having a wind meter initially will help hone this skill. I have not used a kesteral in a match since 2018. I have never used one hunting. We have engaged first round in pressure situations in team matches and out past 1K on antelope and yotes in the wind without one. You don't need it! Nobody does. We have the ability to judge wind direction and velocity and make a very accurate call as to how it will affect down range if we pay attention and train our minds to do it. I will also say this, in PRS the best shooters shoot together and they figure out wind before time starts. They watch each other shoot and where the bullet goes. When it is there turn all the figuring goes out the window and they hold what the dudes before them held. In NRL Hunter we are alone, blind stages and make our own wind calls. We don't know where the targets are to be able to make the final call before we see it. We can pay attention to the wind and know its direction and force going into a stage and some do use a kesteral. It really does not help and I will argue it hurts them in matches where there is extreme terrain and variable winds. To own a kesteral just for wind is dumb. Oh it does lead as well… that is dumb too. I own a mover and again using a kesteral to calculate lead is redundant and it doesn't calculate the speed of the moving target. You in put it. Learn to use your brain based on dope. Or here is a cheat, the lead for a 3mph moving target with 2800-2900 fps at 500 is gonna always be about 1.5 mils. Factor in wind and adjust accordingly. Oh the kestrel tells you target distance based on target size and reticle measurement. Yeah so does your phone or a simple chart and your brain if you spend a couple hours training it but you still need to know the size of what you are looking at for it to work. In short, do not buy a kestrel to use in the field. If you want to spend the money and use it as a training aid to hone your ability to call wind and lead in the field it's an expensive tool that works great for that. It also makes a great redundant (positive use of the word) tool to check your RF BC binos against. If you don't use it for that but instead as your crutch you are doing yourself as disfavor. Learn your dope by sending rounds down range and using what God gave us to program our minds. The payoff will be huge when you're faced with a situation like I was on my elk hunt this fall. Stoned him with the first shot at 740, walking left to right into a right to left wind shooting across a drainage. A second insurance round grounded him where he stood wobbling from the first one that blew apart his aorta. Had about 8 seconds to factor it in and would not have been comfortable breaking a shot if my dope and confidence relied on a battery powered piece of plastic stuffed in a pocket somewhere. Learn it feel it send it. One day you will thank me!
