My Kestrel, has turned pessimistic

[Dead Eye Dick]

Went from being well tuned and pretty much dead reliable with my match centerfire and with my Vudoo to, giving me estimates as much as a full Mill High.

Next week, I’m going to go to prince, set up targets at known ranges *easy to do at Prince, and get some firm, true data. then true the Kestrel to this data. I had to do this when the unit was new, not rocket science).

As said, trued it before and until yesterday, with the 6GT and 105 Berger Hybrids as well as the Vudoo, with SK Standard Plus and Long rifle Match dead reliable. Had an issue with my practice 6GT and Berger 105 VLDs at 800 yards, but these other two rifles are solid or at least were. . Now, bonkers. Example. Vudoo, proven data 250 yards, 9.4 mils, This was given by the Kestrel last week. Today, same Kestrel, Same everything excepting 10 degree cooler weather and very low humidity, recommended 10.9 mils. Guess what, tried both, 9.4 mils was on target.

After issues yesterday, I reloaded the rifle data, from my iPhone where proven data is stored. No change from yesterday’s too high recommendations.

Any other ideas.

 

[ma smith]

Eliminate easy explanations before searching further. eg, Do some basic cross checking on your inputs on centrefire. Rimfire in general just sketchy in cold weather (its early december as we type). So check your chrono results carefully.

 

[6.5SH]

Went from being well tuned and pretty much dead reliable with my match centerfire and with my Vudoo to, giving me estimates as much as a full Mill High.

Next week, I’m going to go to prince, set up targets at known ranges *easy to do at Prince, and get some firm, true data. then true the Kestrel to this data. I had to do this when the unit was new, not rocket science).

As said, trued it before and until yesterday, with the 6GT and 105 Berger Hybrids as well as the Vudoo, with SK Standard Plus and Long rifle Match dead reliable. Had an issue with my practice 6GT and Berger 105 VLDs at 800 yards, but these other two rifles are solid or at least were. . Now, bonkers. Example. Vudoo, proven data 250 yards, 9.4 mils, This was given by the Kestrel last week. Today, same Kestrel, Same everything excepting 10 degree cooler weather and very low humidity, recommended 10.9 mils. Guess what, tried both, 9.4 mils was on target.

After issues yesterday, I reloaded the rifle data, from my iPhone where proven data is stored. No change from yesterday’s too high recommendations.

Any other ideas.

Pencil and paper and write everything down.

Grab a few apps to compare with; 4DoF, Lapua Ballistics are free as well as GeoBallistics for one profile. As loath as I am to suggest it Chairgun Elite is another.
Other than at the extremes all of these offer solutions within a click or two with good data even though the engines are different.

 

[Dead Eye Dick]

Pencil and paper and write everything down.

Grab a few apps to compare with; 4DoF, Lapua Ballistics are free as well as GeoBallistics for one profile. As loath as I am to suggest it Chairgun Elite is another.
Other than at the extremes all of these offer solutions within a click or two with good data even though the engines are different.

Shooting in Florida the temperature drop is only ten degrees from last week and am using Varget with CCI 450’s which should easily handle this temperature drop with no issues. .

As far as writing down everything, I have 39 pages of handwritten data for the month of November alone. Four full books for the last three years. That’s where I’m getting my proven data. However, I will compare it to a couple online ballistic programs.

The only real weather variable would be the very low humidity, possibly as low as I’ve ever shot in two years of recording humidity. Also the barometric pressure was quite high at 30.24inHG However, on Saturday, when the Kestrel was still giving good data, the pressure was 30.18 and the humidity was 30.4%. I shoot in Louisiana and Florida but in Louisiana the humidity levels are rarely below the 50% level and can be higher. For the last three days, density altitudes have been in the negative area, but again, this is not something I haven’t encountered before.

For centerfire, ballistic math has been a pretty good cover to get on target without dragging out a lot of equipment.. it’s been my goto and to this date, has not let me down. Good enough to get on target out to ranges of 800 yards. The Kestrel refined it and gave me the intermediate ranges so often found in matches and even on different ranges. (And always shooting 22rf.) Before the Kestrel I used the Hornady program on my phone while having to rely on local weather reports.

Until Sunday and Monday, the Kestrel has been dead solid after being trued in all but on one distance with one rifle. (And that appears to be an anomaly since I don’t use that bullet anymore. ).

 

[Dead Eye Dick]

Fun with kestrel

Update 7:41: Reference

Decided since I don’t need to start packing just yet (going back to Louisiana tomorrow) that I would try a few things.

Ran Kestrel this morning. Same data as yesterday. Example range for 6GT at 500 yards was listed at 3.03 mils. (proven data and on-target data yesterday is 2.5 mils)

First, I did a hard reset, shut down the Kestrel and removed the battery for more than ten seconds (probably closer to 20). Reinsert battery, start Kestrel check range for my 6GT at 500 yards. Kestrel reported target data as 2.73 mils. Still not correct but different (???) Strange for sure.

Next, shut down kestrel, remove battery for another hard reset, reinsert battery after ten seconds, start up Kestrel and do a FACTORY RESET.

Re-enter rifle data from phone where it is stored

Check Kestrel 500 yards, 2.5mils PERFECT. Check 400 yards 1.6 mils, check 700 yards 4.3 mils. This is proven data.

All good.

I the 1980’s 1990’s and early 2000’s I wrote several commercial grade computer applications for MS DOS and Windows. Coding is something of an art form in language. It is also rather arcane. My point, I HATE it when things fix themselves for no known reason and worse when they break for no known reason.

But for now, glad it’s back to its happy (and my happy) normal self.

Thank you for the suggestions gentleman.