Truing - Why do calculators just accept one data point?

[i_s]

There is something I never understood when it comes to truing ballistic calculators. All of the ones I've tried, like Strelok Pro and Kestrel AB have it so that when you are truing your calculator, you just give it 1 data point at a time. For example, your drop at 1200 yards, then it corrects variables like the muzzle velocity or BC.

Why not allow multiple data points? It seems like you should be able to tell the calculator "here is my drop at 400, 600, 800, 1000", tweak whatever variables you need to get it to match that data exactly for the current environment.

To me this seems like a painfully obvious improvement, even if it would take the calculator more iterations to solve for those variables. In case it isn't clear, the downside of the current approach is that you risk losing data points you know to be correct each time you true one of the variables. Better would be if the calculator would just fill in the things you do not know, not second guess the stuff you already know.

This seems kind of basic, yet I see that it isn't done in any calculator I know of, so I'm guessing something I said above must be wrong. Does anyone know what that is, or why ballistic calculators do it this way?

 

[6.5SH]

There is something I never understood when it comes to truing ballistic calculators. All of the ones I've tried, like Strelok Pro and Kestrel AB have it so that when you are truing your calculator, you just give it 1 data point at a time. For example, your drop at 1200 yards, then it corrects variables like the muzzle velocity or BC.

Why not allow multiple data points? It seems like you should be able to tell the calculator "here is my drop at 400, 600, 800, 1000", tweak whatever variables you need to get it to match that data exactly for the current environment.

To me this seems like a painfully obvious improvement, even if it would take the calculator more iterations to solve for those variables. In case it isn't clear, the downside of the current approach is that you risk losing data points you know to be correct each time you true one of the variables. Better would be if the calculator would just fill in the things you do not know, not second guess the stuff you already know.

This seems kind of basic, yet I see that it isn't done in any calculator I know of, so I'm guessing something I said above must be wrong. Does anyone know what that is, or why ballistic calculators do it this way?

Unless you have a very old copy of Strelok Pro it has three distance input if you do a long press on the Trajectory validation button.
The AB mobile app is also 3 distances under Ballistic Calibration.
If you are using a Kestrel Elite "DSF", Drop Scale Factor allows up to 6 distances and can actually "bend" the curve in both directions. I'm not aware of another app that does that.

https://kestrelballistics.com/faqs/question/view/id/281/#calibrating-drop-scale-factor

 

[ma smith]

IMHO its not a math problem, its a language problem. OP is basically asking why all BC models don't act like DSF.

 

[i_s]

Unless you have a very old copy of Strelok Pro it has three distance input if you do a long press on the Trajectory validation button.
The AB mobile app is also 3 distances under Ballistic Calibration.
If you are using a Kestrel Elite "DSF", Drop Scale Factor allows up to 6 distances and can actually "bend" the curve in both directions. I'm not aware of another app that does that.

https://kestrelballistics.com/faqs/question/view/id/281/#calibrating-drop-scale-factor

That is awesome RE Strelok Pro. Great info, thanks!

For Kestrel Elite, I knew about that, but it says that is just for "calibrat[ing] the BC of your round beyond the supersonic range of the bullet...". I was looking for something just for the normal supersonic range.

 

[6.5SH]

That is awesome RE Strelok Pro. Great info, thanks!

For Kestrel Elite, I knew about that, but it says that is just for "calibrat[ing] the BC of your round beyond the supersonic range of the bullet...". I was looking for something just for the normal supersonic range.

It does it both directions, the DSF function is heavily used for rimfire, short of a measured {PDM} it is as good as you can get.

 

[i_s]

It does it both directions, the DSF function is heavily used for rimfire, short of a measured {PDM} it is as good as you can get.

Awesome. Will check this out, thanks.

 

[ma smith]

That is awesome RE Strelok Pro. Great info, thanks!

For Kestrel Elite, I knew about that, but it says that is just for "calibrat[ing] the BC of your round beyond the supersonic range of the bullet...". I was looking for something just for the normal supersonic range.

The unspoken problem for most people here is they don't have access to the "transonic distance ranges" where you are supposed to test your BC