Tag Archives: Applied Ballistics

This article shares what pro shooter Austin Orgain uses to calculate his ballistics (which will surprise you) and how he tests his ballistics and trues his velocity and bullet drag so his ballistic calculator lines up with his actual impacts in the field. It also covers exactly how he writes down his adjustments for elevation and wind for a PRS stage and how he uses it while he’s on the clock. This article talks directly about some of the bigger differences between a pro shooter and an amateur, so you won’t want to miss it!

Have you ever been at a match, and you saw a shooter there you respect – and you wished you could see what was going on in his head? What does he think about before a stage? What is he thinking about as he takes each shot? Why is he running that bag? How does he practice? What helped him make the leap from a mid-pack shooter to the guy who consistently goes home with trophies? Over the past couple of years, a few of the very best precision rifle competitors have started publishing podcasts. It would be extremely rare in any sport for the guys at the absolute pinnacle of the sport to take the time to host a podcast and openly share their knowledge, approach, and mindset with the rest of their community - but, we are fortunate in the precision rifle world for that to be true. Over the past few months, I’ve learned more from these podcasts than anywhere else, so I naturally want to share those with my readers so you can benefit from them, too!

If you only read one article in this series, MAKE IT THIS ONE! This article takes all the data collected over months of live-fire research and sums it all up by ranking each type of ammo by hit probability from 400 to 1,200 yards! After all, the size of a group on paper at 100 yards or the muzzle velocity our chronograph spits out doesn’t really matter – at least not directly. For long-range work, all that actually matters is if our bullet impacts the target downrange. Precision and velocity affect that, but so do a lot of other factors! So this article is like the grand finale and ranks which ammo gives us the best odds of connecting with long-range targets.

I recently tested every popular type of 6.5 Creedmoor ammo, and carefully collected data on the performance of each one. I thought it’d be fun before any of the results are published to poll my readers to see which type of ammo you expect to end up on top. What do you think will perform the best when it comes to hit probability at long-range (e.g. 600 to 1200 yards)? Cast your vote and see what other readers think will end up on top!

Well, when I started writing that last article on personalized drag models being the final frontier of predictive ballistics, I honestly believed I was going out on a limb and trying to predict something that might be years away. It turns out it was only months away! Welcome to the future! 😉 One of the biggest benefits I get as the author of PRB is getting to meet industry experts and have interesting conversations with the leading minds in various fields related to long range shooting. I absolutely love those conversations, and value them more than any payment I could ...

I am super-excited about this article! I’ve actually been working on it for a couple of months, and I believe it represents some of the most interesting research I’ve come across in a while. Over the past several years, companies have started using Doppler radars to gain a much deeper understanding into the flight of a bullet. One ballistician told me recently that we’ve learned more in the last 5 years than the previous 75 years combined! In the last article, we looked G1 BC vs. G7 BC vs. Bullet-Specific Drag Models, including which of those the top-ranked precision rifle ...

“In the past 4-5 years we’ve made quantum leaps when it comes to predicting bullet trajectories.” –Dave Emary, Ballistician Ever wonder why you center punch targets at some distances, but your dope is a couple clicks off at other distances? Maybe your shots are dead on at 600 yards but off at 1000 yards, or vice versa. In those scenarios we often blame the rifle, scope, ammo, or ourselves, but is our firing solution as accurate as it should be? This article gives practical insight into some important nuances of predicting bullet trajectory, and shows what drag models the top ...

Ever wondered what ballistic app the best shooters use? Here are the answers! This article covers the ballistic apps the top precision rifle shooters are running to calculate their firing solutions for first-round hits at long range. The data is based on a recent survey I conducted of the top-ranked shooters across the country in both the Precision Rifle Series (PRS) and National Rifle League (NRL). (Learn more about the PRS & NRL). This is a very unique data set, because it includes a wide sample size (170+ shooters) who also represent the leading experts in the field. (View all ...

When you extend shots into extreme ranges (like 2000+ yards), you’ll face some new obstacles. A few factors that could be safely ignored inside of 1000 yards become critical to getting rounds on target. You’ll face new equipment challenges that may not be obvious. As your bullet’s time of flight extends up 3 seconds, and possibly even up to 6+ seconds, priorities shift. In this series of posts I’m trying to highlight a few things that make extreme long range (ELR) challenging, and pointing out a few products worth checking out that might help. In the first post in this ...

When shooting targets at extreme distances (like 2000+ yards), you’ll quickly uncover some new obstacles. A few factors that could be safely ignored inside of 1000 yards become critical to getting rounds on target. You’ll face new equipment challenges that may not be obvious at first glance. As your bullet’s time of flight extends up 3 seconds, and possibly even up to 6+ seconds, priorities shift. Everything is important, but to differing degrees. In this post, I’ll start by focusing issues you’ll face surrounding optics. That certainly isn’t the biggest challenge when it comes to ELR, but there are some ...