Reccomend me a good wind meter

Looking to put one of these on the Christmas wish list, but don't know what one to get. Was looking at a kestral 4500, but don't know if it's overkill. What do you suggest?

I use the Kestrel 3500 with no complaints. I find that all I need to shoot as far as I can are barometric pressure, humidity, and temp. Obviously, the wind meter is used when speeds are hard to "feel".

+1 for kestrel

I use this one:

http://www.weatherhawk.com/wm350

I really like it.

I have the K2500.

Seems to work.

I like it for the data Sam referred to mostly.

hey, i have one like that!! i used it to measure wind in our tunnel excavation.

Still haven't got one. How important is altitude density vs just regular old altitude?

We use Kestrel 2500's and 3500's. The 3500 will offer humidity and the 2500 does not. Humidity has little effect and can be estimated but it would be nice to have it I feel. The only reason I would upgrade from here would be for the use of blue tooth or the new Applied Ballistics Kestrel that will send and display everything on your phone app. This new version addresses aerodynamic jump and something we need to look at if going into ELR. I plan to test this all out in the future. But for average hunting distances this may not be something you would ever need.

Density altitude is a prediction made up of the components needed to get a shooting solution from an app. It will allow you to only input one entry for your solution. What most long range shooters are doing now is to enter station pressure, temp and humidity. So using D/A may appear to be faster in some cases, but also eliminates being able to see each individual component of the entry. I don't use it for this reason. We often turn our kestrel on and the temp takes time to stabilize. We want the ambient temp to be accurate. A kestrel coming from a pocket or other location may not have stabilized and offer a reading we see and realize is off. We then sling the kestrel for a few seconds or place it out to get an accurate reading. If we were just entering a number like D/A we may not catch this. I just read where a shooter left his kestrel laying in the summer sun. He picked it up and it read 145 degrees. If he had it on D/A he may not have caught this error and the first round hit we all strive for would have been a miss. D/A also differs from actual inputted pressure and temp once you go farther in most some apps. Most cases this is past 1500 yards. I will not say the D/A solution is wrong, but it does differ. These are the reasons some of prefer to use actual station pressure and temp to get our solutions. My apps (Applied Ballistics and Shooter) allow me to check a box to "save last environmental conditions" By doing this I only need to enter the pressure, temp and humidity once unless I move or there has been an obvious change in conditions. So I enter these once at my hunting location and for the shot I only need to enter the distance and shot angle. This method for me makes it every bit as fast as using D/A and in my opinion a better choice for me, for the reasons I have listed.

Jeff

I agree that ANY Kestrel/weather gauge should be allowed to "stabilize" before using any data from it, in a ballistic calculator. There is nothing to be rushed in LR shooting, so waiting for a "stabilized" DA measurement from a 4500 isn't any different than waiting for a "stabilized" temperature reading from a 1/2/3000 series Kestrel.

The benefit of using DA lies in the ease of referencing atmospherics in one calculated unit. DA isn't any more/less accurate than inputting temp, altitude and pressure independently, it just makes the process of data input more hassle free.

Seeing as how DA is a principle measurement used to keep aircraft operating during takeoff and flight, I don't see any shortcomings for using DA as a consistent reference for determining bullet flight.

LR shooters spend thousands of dollars on custom rifles, scopes, rangefinders, etc. IMHO, spend an extra hundred bucks and get a Kestrel 4500NV. Use DA, or don't...at least you have the option to do so.

flyinsquirel said:

Still haven't got one. How important is altitude density vs just regular old altitude?

Click to expand...

Any meter that will give you accurate pressure and temp readings will work fine. The Kestrels are great for wind speed calcs as well. Once you start using one, you will quickly learn that it doesn't matter what the altitude is. All you need to know is what the "station pressure" is...the air pressure right where you are. You can input it into your ballistic app as you move into an area where you might be shooting. At extended ranges (over 1200 yards or so), you will need to be within 10 degrees or so for temp, but for plain old long distances, it isn't as critical and can almost be estimated by feel.

A Kestrel 2500 or 3500 will do everything you need and are very simple to operate. If you have a Leica 1600-B, the baro and temp readings work pretty well, also. I have been comparing mine to my Kestrels for about a year now, and have found I can probably leave the 3500 in the pack

Good solid advice Sam.

Jeff

Thanks for the help guys.