Electronic DOPE cards

JM4590

Private
Full Member
Minuteman
Jun 28, 2013
626
915
Midland,Va
Is anyone running a Kestrel HUD or a Downrange E Card? For standard PRS matches I find that the Hawk Hill Custom holder with a sharpie and some blue scotch works perfect. I have time between stages to consult the Kestrel,write down my holds, put them on the tape and am ready when I’m up. This year I’m getting into some of the matches where it’s Find em, Range em, Engage em…..and your time starts now! I know one could go old school tried and true and just simply write the stuff down on a card and somehow attach it to the rifle. I want DOPE from 100- maybe 1200? Lots of little chicken scratch on a card.

Just looking to see if anyone is using one of the above and if they find it useful, dependable, rugged, and don’t get hooked on diff barricades / positions.

Lemme know what you think.
 
I looked at running a Kestrel HUD, but it looks like it only shows 2 fields of info per target ie elevation and wind1, wind 1 and wind2, wind2 and whatever is after that. So I ended up running my Kestrel attached by a lanyard to my chest rig. It shows elevation, wind1 and wind2, but I have to manually switch targets after every shot. And you have the connectivity issue to contend with. I'd say during the course of a 20 stage match, I'll have at least 1 and possibly 2 stages where my binos and Kestrel won't link up. If i didn't like how it worked so well when it works, and i was a better wind-direction-in-relation-to-target judger, I'd go back to a dry erase marker and an armboard.
 
Yes, not sure the whole electronic thing is worth it. Reached out to a manufacturer to see if they could make me a mount for the HUD for my Spuhr mount. They can and we’re willing, but by the time I invest in the HUD and the mount, I’m looking at $500….long way away from tried and true sharpie and tape or DOPE card.
 
I’ve got both of these, a Kestrel HUD and Hawk Hill card holder. I’ve found HUD is fine when there’s plenty of time to work with the electronics, but for speed and reliability, I like the Hawk Hill unit. I personally couldn’t get on with an armband, it never seemed to be in the place where I could read it easily. The Hawk Hill is in perfect line of sight.
 
As far as speed the HUD is extremely fast. I mean you range the target and if your range finder is Bluetooth connected to your kestrel then your HUD is automatically gonna pick it up almost simultaneously with your kestrel so there’s nothing slow about the HUD it’s quicker than writing your dope down. There are different target type screens on the HUD. You can have single target screen with 2 wind holds and you can scroll through each target. Multiple target screen with one section just for each targets wind 1, wind 2, TOF, rem energy, rem velocity, lead, yardage. Or dope card menu that you can have your dope for every 25 yards. Couple other screens too. And I stick a Velcro on the back and mount it directly to my hawk hill dope card holder. I’ve been using it for like 2 years. Died on me once because I used bad batteries. I highly recommend it. And it has a freakin timer. Idk how many shots I’ve slowed down for and took my time and got the impact because I can see how much time I got left
 
  • Like
Reactions: JM4590