Wind Methods....Without Kestrel

[Shotshill]

The BEAUFORT SCALE has been in use for 200+ yrs.. If you spent anytime sailing this is a requirement. It applies to land as well... Learn it and know it ...

 

[Varminterror]

The major value - and increased cost - inherent to a Kestrel is the other features. It’s a weather meter and most we use are also a ballistic computer, not just an anemometer. There’s not much excuse for not having an anemometer, a Caldwell Wind Wizard can be had for $20-25. The Kestrel is worth every penny, but in l

Walking around outside with an anemometer and a small notebook in your pocket, observing environmental influences, making a wind estimate, then reading the wind to confirm or correct your estimate is time well spent.

Mirage is the most reliable method until wind gets over 10mph, but then we have to rely upon physical indicators. Pretty common here in KS to have wind over 10mph, so mirage is just an indicator for direction, less for speed. Love the days when the wind is 5-10 and we get to shoot long with great mirage indications.

 

[Bravo6]

The major value - and increased cost - inherent to a Kestrel is the other features. It’s a weather meter and most we use are also a ballistic computer, not just an anemometer. There’s not much excuse for not having an anemometer, a Caldwell Wind Wizard can be had for $20-25. The Kestrel is worth every penny, but in l

Walking around outside with an anemometer and a small notebook in your pocket, observing environmental influences, making a wind estimate, then reading the wind to confirm or correct your estimate is time well spent.

Mirage is the most reliable method until wind gets over 10mph, but then we have to rely upon physical indicators. Pretty common here in KS to have wind over 10mph, so mirage is just an indicator for direction, less for speed. Love the days when the wind is 5-10 and we get to shoot long with great mirage indications.

Do you recommend the Caldwell Wind Wizard? Any others you guys recommend to use with Strelok Pro?

Bad wind down here in Texas, helps increase my hits when I go off of my friends Kestrel.

 

[Varminterror]

I keep a Wind Wizard in my truck just to aid in practice - and if some bum breaks in and steels it, I’m out $30 instead of $300. The huge disadvantage of the Wind Wizard wind meter to the Kestrel WEATHER meter is the fact the WW cannot give your density altitude, while the Kestrel can and does.

Many guys use a wind-only anemometer like the WW, then retrieve weather data from online weather services through their phone. And if you are in an area with sufficient cellular internet service AND close enough to a weather station for the data to be relevant, that might work just fine. But environmental change in the course of a day might mean 0.2mil change in your trajectory at 600-1000yrds, meaning a 7” miss at 1,000. Checking a weather station report 20 miles away, then walking 6 miles backcountry on Friday night and shooting a mule deer on the next Thursday morning might mean your environmental data simply does not fit any longer.

However, a shooter does not have to buy a ballistic engine Kestrel to get the weather meter functions, a guy can spend $150-180 on the 2500 or 3000 to get altitude, temp, relative humidity, and barometric pressure to be able to achieve the necessary inputs for their phone-based ballistic solver.

Personally, I spent the money to get the Kestrel Sportsman because of the weather meter feature first - local weather data trumps online data when my phone doesn’t have service, AND because it is faster to use DA instead of discrete weather inputs, AND because two is one, one is none. If I’m using my phone for ballistics, my kestrel is the backup, and vice versa. Depreciated over the product life, or diluted over the number of shots I have fired with the aid of the Kestrel, the purchase price is really irrelevant - it has depreciated and/or diluted down to near-zero cost very quickly. Thousands of dollars in ammo cost and thousands of dollars of barrel costs... the Kestrel cost is an imperceptible drop in the bucket.

 

[Gila]

Do you recommend the Caldwell Wind Wizard? Any others you guys recommend to use with Strelok Pro?

Bad wind down here in Texas, helps increase my hits when I go off of my friends Kestrel.

Physics tells us the wind at the muzzle has the most downrange effect. Weatherflow works great with Strelok pro: https://www.globaltestsupply.com/pr...MIifbDharJ6gIVRr7ACh0LqAc9EAQYAiABEgL2gfD_BwE