Hey guys, decided it was time to get into the AB ecosystem from using Strelok and a Weatherflow. Nothing wrong with that setup, but seeing a friend work his AB tools and get first round hits on everything made me a little jealous. Anyways, through a series of running into some great deals, I ended up with a Tactix 7 Pro, some Fury 5000 ABs, and a Foretrex 701 AB (I know I don't need the Foretrex and the Tactix, but I found the the Foretrex for $150 new and couldn't say no to that obviously). Anyways, with those tools, should I still be considering a Kestrel? I believe the only thing it will get me at this point is wind, but also much quicker adaptions to the atmospherics. Is that right? Is that alone worth adding a kestrel in the mix? I live in AZ if that matters, so always hot, no humidity, wind doesn't tend to be too big of a deal where I'm at. Thanks.
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Do I need a kestrel in my current setup?
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I would consider a kestrel an essential piece of kit. You dont necessarily need one with AB on board but it is helpful as it is in the ecosystem.
I’m not a gamer but for me the Kestrel with AB was a complete game-changer. Past 600 yards I just felt it was an easy button.
Dealing with constantly changing Wyoming winds can be a challenge. The wind vane feature ported to the app on my phone allows me to shoot effectively on days that are way above my skill level of wind reading. It is a great tool for observing changing winds and learning.
Dealing with constantly changing Wyoming winds can be a challenge. The wind vane feature ported to the app on my phone allows me to shoot effectively on days that are way above my skill level of wind reading. It is a great tool for observing changing winds and learning.
I guess I didn't know the Fury can take a non AB Kestrel. That makes the decision a lot easier to not have to spend $900 for the Elite X. I can get the 5500 with Link and the weather vane mount for 355 shipped right now with the opticsplanet coupon, so I think I'll go that route. Thanks.
That's good feedback thank you. I am going to go with a non AB since the Fury's can use them for weather only as windrider mentioned. I am going to get the cane mount, how are you running it? Do you have a standalone tripod for it?
I checked the manual after what windrider wrote, and there is indeed directions for using both AB Kestrels and non AB Kestrels. I found a write up on another forum as well mentioning the ability to use a non AB Kestrel and the pros of using an AB Kestrel and it seemed like mostly redundancy and range card ability which I would already have with the Garmins.
These are definitely decisions that you have to make to suit your needs, budget and eco system. It is like mils vs moa, I like to poke fun about moa but it is your rifle and your glass…..you do you.
That said, just to be clear, the only experience that I have, and spoke of, is with the AB Kestrel porting the come ups (and wind calls in “holds” moa or mil) directly to the phone. I’m not at all sure how that works just porting wind. Perhaps somebody else has more experience with that.
Best of luck.
A Kestrel 5700 is good to have and useful for sure. But upgrading to the Elite/AB version isn’t necessary or really worth the cost.
AB is basically extorting us to spend an extra $300 just for target cards, which while nice, one can get by without just fine, especially since Strelok Pro works great with a normal 5700 and still does target cards better than AB for like ~$12 (instead of $300), and AB’s custom drag models aren’t needed if one understands how to find the BC of their bullets by shooting them themselves (and is what one should do anyway because every load/gun is different).
AB is basically extorting us to spend an extra $300 just for target cards, which while nice, one can get by without just fine, especially since Strelok Pro works great with a normal 5700 and still does target cards better than AB for like ~$12 (instead of $300), and AB’s custom drag models aren’t needed if one understands how to find the BC of their bullets by shooting them themselves (and is what one should do anyway because every load/gun is different).
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