Re: Shooter Truing
Most software "trues" the same way.
There is a process to truing and if you follow it, the software is much more effective. I will give you an example of this:
I assembled a rifle last week for a competition in FLA, the K&M Match. On tuesday just before the match I had a batch of rounds ship to me from Andrew McCourt, these were the same load he sent to FLA ahead of time. The rifle was brand new and unfired.
I took a known and trued scope along with the rifle to my indoor range as here in Denver the weather was less than desirable to go out and shoot the loads for verification. The results were outstanding using JBM which was my only data from 100 to 1000 yards. <span style="font-style: italic">( I used Shooter as a back up with my iPod but never broke it out)</span>
So,
1. At 100 yards true your scope, I use a 4ft level and measure off the adjustments from top to bottom. You can use any thing you like, the level is easy and provides me with a opportunity to check not only tracking but level.
2. Run as many rounds over the chronograph as possible. I used 20 rounds at 100 yards at the indoor range. This gave me a zero and data to use. I confirmed zero at the range the day before the match, I used 5 rounds to do this.
3. You can calculate drop at 300, to 800, and modify the data based off that, but it is not always necessary if you true your scope. Some things many change so the more data points you have the better. However at 100 yards you can dial up on a larger target board and measure off the adjustment to match the distance. So if you need 8.3 mils to reach 100 according to the software, dial up 8.3 mils, aim at the same zero point and shoot. Then measure to determine the round impacted in the correct place. Shooting at distance is better, but this helps a lot.
I personally like using stepped BCs and have yet to see a major difference between G1 & G7 software wise when using them. it is the same amount of work regardless of which one you use, but if the opportunity is there to use the (Litz) versions I will, however with a 308 I have found the G1 , stepped to be fantastic. In a lot of cases it is easier to find G1 data so I use that rather than chasing down G7 information.
Another key is real time accurate environmental data. When I put my data into JBM I went and grabbed current condition at the location. In the field with an iPhone / iPod / Android / PDA do not grabbed the conditions from the unit but from a Kestrel in your hand. That is the most accurate data and not potentially from miles away.
This data was not tweaked at all, just averaged and it allowed me to engage targets of 1 MOA or better out to distance during field / match conditions. It was spot on.
The range card I used was exactly this laminated and was my only pre-determined information for an unfired rifle. The results were a Top 12 placing using ammo that was actually loaded to the spec of a different rifle. <span style="font-style: italic">(21" AW vs 24" GAP)</span>
I just laminated it and went to work. Load was 260REM from Andrew McCourt using a 139gr Scenar loaded to magazine length.
