Experience is its own proof... once you get beyond 1000yards it becomes very clear where the effort goes. Lamenting the fact people read the manuals or watch the How To Videos is pretty funny. I still read the manuals and watch the videos regardless. You always learn something. How well can honestly know a program you just tripped your way through.
Plus look at the number of,
"hey my software doesn't line up" posts, it's pretty clear which programs require extra tweaking to line up vs using real-world data unedited. Using a 3DOF program (which is 90% of them) and bending the curve on the ends is the lowest common denominator in terms of solvers. It's freeware in a fancy wrapper since you can make your own program with it in EXCEL. 3DOF has been around a very long time. No new invention in using it.
Gunsite used to offer classes on Field Firing Solution beyond the stuff in the XLR class, but since everyone with a phone app is an instant expert there is no reason for them to do so. Instead, it's more about the real world results vs sitting in a conference room talking about it. Gunsite has been doing this longer than anyone else if you think about it. Only Clint Smith has been around as long.
Most companies look at software as a value-add product vs basing an entire model on it, and guys like Gus from Coldbore /Patagonia Ballistics are not from the US so they stay out of our conversations about this stuff. However, if I was to share my What's App conversations we'd all be better educated on the subject. Blaine with Lex Talus is a lawyer and not a ballistician but he came out with FFS before AB was even a thing. He went to the shooters to flush this program out, which is why it works. Interesting he went in a different direction vs the rest as he had the same choice to use the exact same formulas AB uses but instead went in different direction.
There are plenty of companies doing outstanding work in the field of ballistics. They just don't get into discussions about it on the internet because countering the biases out here can be taxing if not a waste of their time. Take Hornady, experience, technology, they are working hard in this field but give their 4DOF software away. Doesn't mean they don't have an outstanding product doing things different from the others, it just means they see this as a value-added approach to their bullet making. The fact they were openly attacked proves their approach struck a nerve. Heck just eliminating BCs was the smartest way to address multiple issues.
Same with Lapua, they give away their software. Value Added again, it's not about the money.
Ignorance is definitely bliss and it's nice we have a lot of options to choose from. You can talk to a lot of companies in terms of CS when it comes to software, the question I have for tna9001 is, have you ever tried talking to anyone else?
It can be a double-edged sword, just suggesting AB is not the best reaps a ton of hate on you. Takes a lot of balls to go against the grain, I compare the reaction to Donald Sutherland's face at the en of Invasion of the Body Snatchers every time these posts come up.
There is a crowd, standing off to the side, pointing, making that distorted face, screaming for back up.
there are tons of threads and good info about its performance.
