Kestrel help please!!!

[supercrossbmx69]

Is it bad that I want to throw my brand new kestrel 4000nv? I bought it to make the switch from my g7 br2 to a vectronix terrapin and just use the shooter app. And I read all over the Internet that it tells elevation, baro pressure, temp humidity, and wind speed, just to find out when I receive it, that you have to type in the correct elevation for elevation and baro pressure to be correct. Which I feel before I type it in to my shooter app, is all incorrect, which then is confirmed when I press the fire button on my br2 and the calculate button on shooter. I'm shooting as I'm typing this (letting the barrel cool down) and my br2 has me hitting rocks every shot at 587, and 1088. But I type all the environmental conditions in the shooter app and its normally 1.5 -2 MOA lower then what the br2 tells me to dial. And I want to blame it on the kestrel, not shooter. Are their any wind meters out there that will actually tell you the correct elevation and baro pressure so I don't have to go buy a GPS to tell me this?

 

[MMERSS]

Have you tried calibrating your Kestrel from a known weather station?

Helena, MT Weather Forecast from Weather Underground

There is a station in the north hills. I will take my Kestrel 4500NV to this station with the known altitude and adjust the Baro pressure as indicated by the link above using the instructions in the Kestrel manual corresponding to this altitude.

I have found after calibrating my altitude will vary by 300ft. Not significant enough for a ballistics solution for my needs.

Every Kestrel will have some degree of error after being set at the factory. It's ultimately up to the user to determine if the errors are acceptable.

I hope I'm reading what you are asking.

 

[Greyfox]

I went through the same process owning a G7 Br2, and then buying a Terrapin. I had previous experience with Shooter and the Kestrel. As stated in a previous post, I had to calibrate the Kestral Alt/Pressure per the manual. Getting this squared away, I did get the exact same readings as my G7. However, after a season I went back to my G7 which was faster,easier, and gave up nothing to the Terrapin et al. I correct spin drift mentally with the G7 out past 800 yards. Don't get e wrong, the Terrapin is superb rangefinder, but for my hunting out to 1200 yards the G7's multifunction capability is hard to beat. I'll use the Terrapin, Shooter, Kestrel for my +1200 yard shooting where CE and SD have a more significant influence and the Terrapin's ranging power and narrow beam has the advantage.

 

[Korhil78]

Try reading this thread and do what I did on it. Set your ref. Alt. To 0 and you won't have to worry about elevation. Just make sure that in shooter that "pressure is absolute" is on. This has worked for me out to 1780 yds. The link is below. I think my second post on there explains what I did. I don't know if the 4000 is the same as the 4500 though.

http://www.longrangehunting.com/forums/f17/kestrel-help-118571/

 

[supercrossbmx69]

Thank you guys for your help I think I figured it out. Will shoot tomorrow to be sure. So since it is calibrated now (I think) say I go hunting somewhere I've never been, I won't have to re calibrate, correct? From what I was reading in the manual, it made it sound like I had to re-calibrate the kestrel every time I switched altitudes (hunting spots)
Which would be a pain considering I often go to places I've never been with friends, when we have no idea where we will even go.


Grey fox, thanks for your input, I'm still not sure if I do want to make the swap yet. Here my story. A few weeks ago I went out to fill my doe tag. Easy I thought. But I had my mind set that I would not just shoot the first Doe I saw, she hard to be far to make it fun! So I found what I was looking for, a doe a what I thought was 850+ yards. So I ranged her with the g7. Which came back 515 yds. So I was like there's no way?? She has to be ATLEAST 800. Problem I believe was she was behind a hill, and I believe the g7 was ranging the top of the hill due to its large laser beam, NOT the doe. So I lost the trophy doe because I wasn't confident in the G7. But in all reality, what if that were a 200" buck? I would never be able to look at the g7 again. And I would of had to watch the buck walk!! Which is what brought the terrapin into my mind. Because it has a way smaller beam. Make sense?

 

[MMERSS]

I won't have to re calibrate, correct?

Correct, you should be ok.

 

[Scrubbit]

I think you are confusing barometric and station pressure (and maybe density altitude). It's not the easiest concept to grasp, and I screwed it up for a while until I did some research on it. To get the Kestrel to read and use station pressure accurately (or any other ballistics software), you need to set the altitude to zero. In my ballistics calculator (Gunsim) both the altitude and density altitude have to be set to zero and the station pressure from my Kestrel (with altitude of 0 input) inputted to get accurate data. The only reason to set the altitude to your actual altitude with the Kestrel is if you want to calculate barometric pressure. My explanation is probably confusing. Here's a good link.

Barometric Pressure and Ballistic Software

 

[MMERSS]

To get the Kestrel to read and use station pressure accurately (or any other ballistics software), you need to set the altitude to zero. In my ballistics calculator (Gunsim) both the altitude and density altitude have to be set to zero and the station pressure from my Kestrel (with altitude of 0 input) inputted to get accurate data. http://www.arcanamavens.com/LBSFiles/Shooting/Downloads/Baro/

And if you want your Kestrel to read Baro pressure? Some apps will take either station pressure or Baro pressure with altitude. You just need to be aware of which pressure entry is needed. One usual "clue" is if there is only a pressure and no altitude entry required meaning the pressure needs to be station requiring reference altitude of 0.

 

[Greyfox]

Grey fox, thanks for your input, I'm still not sure if I do want to make the swap yet. Here my story. A few weeks ago I went out to fill my doe tag. Easy I thought. But I had my mind set that I would not just shoot the first Doe I saw, she hard to be far to make it fun! So I found what I was looking for, a doe a what I thought was 850+ yards. So I ranged her with the g7. Which came back 515 yds. So I was like there's no way?? She has to be ATLEAST 800. Problem I believe was she was behind a hill, and I believe the g7 was ranging the top of the hill due to its large laser beam, NOT the doe.
So I lost the trophy doe because I wasn't confident in the G7. But in all reality, what if that were a 200" buck? I would never be able to look at the g7 again. And I would of had to watch the buck walk!! Which is what brought the terrapin into my mind. Because it has a way smaller beam. Make sense?

In the end, confidence is everything. When i first used the G7 i had the same difficulty but soon found that I could very quickly discern interfering hills, brush, multiple animals, etc by toggling the near/far mode when the situation occurred. With practice you can determine the animal from the interfering hill or brush very quickly. This feature seems to compensate for the larger beam of the G7, and I have found that i can get accurate ranges as quickly as i can with the Terrapin at my hunting ranges. So far I have had very good success with some challenging interferences with several deer, antelope, and coyotes, out to 1100 yards. Now having been hunting long range for several years, my biggest reason for missed opportunities, particularly big whitetails, is that they don't hang around very long. The G7, with its built in computing capability is very fast, and I have high confidence in it.

 

[supercrossbmx69]

For the most part, you guys have got me where I want to be. But there is still one more thing that I'm quite confused on.

I took the g7 and the kestrel out shooting today. Started at 1088. The g7 said 21.4 MOA and the shooter app said 21.3. Close enough! So I kept changing distances farther and farther until I got to 1289, the g7 said 27.6 and shooter said 25.1??? This was with spin drift off and Coriolis off, on the shooter app. So I turned them both on and the recalculated shooter, which gave me 27.5. Right close with the g7. But g7 doesn't correct for spin drift or Coriolis??? So how was shooter off that far and how was the g7 dead on??

 

[MMERSS]

For the most part, you guys have got me where I want to be. But there is still one more thing that I'm quite confused on.

I took the g7 and the kestrel out shooting today. Started at 1088. The g7 said 21.4 MOA and the shooter app said 21.3. Close enough! So I kept changing distances farther and farther until I got to 1289, the g7 said 27.6 and shooter said 25.1??? This was with spin drift off and Coriolis off, on the shooter app. So I turned them both on and the recalculated shooter, which gave me 27.5. Right close with the g7. But g7 doesn't correct for spin drift or Coriolis??? So how was shooter off that far and how was the g7 dead on??

Something doesn't quite seem right going from 25.1 with SD and C turned off then going to 27.5 with them both turned on.

1. SD turned on will provide a windage correction, not an elevation correction. This leave C turned on with a 2.5MOA elevation correction.

2. Are you certain your program was not "stuck" for some reason when changing to C on? I don't know what ballistics profile you are shooting but to have a C correction of 2.5MOA will mean your time of flight is HUGE for this distance.

I don't think this is the problem and another issue was at hand.

 

[Jumpalot]

+1
I only use station pressure and it has worked out to a mile.

Try reading this thread and do what I did on it. Set your ref. Alt. To 0 and you won't have to worry about elevation. Just make sure that in shooter that "pressure is absolute" is on. This has worked for me out to 1780 yds. The link is below. I think my second post on there explains what I did. I don't know if the 4000 is the same as the 4500 though.

http://www.longrangehunting.com/forums/f17/kestrel-help-118571/

 

[desertbull]

+1
I only use station pressure and it has worked out to a mile.

me too. I don't understand buying a device that will read the actual pressure where you stand, convert it to baro pressure, enter the elevation, then have the software convert it back to station using the elevation that you entered.

 

[MMERSS]

me too. I don't understand buying a device that will read the actual pressure where you stand, convert it to baro pressure, enter the elevation, then have the software convert it back to station using the elevation that you entered.

I can relate completely to what you are saying. Sometimes we go round and round to get to where we want to go. Air Density.

As far as I am aware weather station locations provide barometric pressure readings for their location. To calibrate your Kestrel you need this barometric pressure and altitude information, assuming you are in the vicinity of the station. Once your Kestrel is calibrated you can set the parameters to your liking for your ballistics engine. Baro + altitude + temp+ humidity=Station pressure+temp+humidity=DA=air density.

Obviously air density is the "beast" we are after. Some methods above take more inputs for a particular ballistics program to compute the air density equivilant, other less. It's ultimately up to the user and I agree less is better. That's why I use DA in a 4000 series Kestrel.