New Hornady 4 DOF ballistic calculator

[montana]

The 123 gr bullet is not available yet but I would love to try this out. Looks promising.

http://www.thefirearmblog.com/blog/2016/...alculator/

[LRRPF52]

I've already been playing with it a little.

I think they took their Doppler radar data and built a new program for people who want high hit probability at long range, like Lapua did with Quick Target Unlimited many years ago.

[acourvil]

Their description is pretty vague, but if calculating vertical shift from a cross wind is the distinguishing feature of this tool, Applied Ballistics already does that. And isn't the drag coefficient a component of ballistic coefficient?

[JASmith]

...And isn't the drag coefficient a component of ballistic coefficient?

The ballistic coefficient is based on the performance of a stnadard projectile. The drag coefficient refers only to the shape of the projectile.

The drag function, size and velocity of the bullet define how quickly energy bleeds out of the bullet from drag.

The bullet's mass and velocity define the energy budget available to resist drag.

The ballistic coefficient is a short hand approximation to the drag coefficient, mass and size of the projectile used in most trajectory calculators. Some, possibly Hornady's, use the drag function, size, weight, and velocity to directly integrate the trajectory. The tend to use a lot of calculations, so run a bit slow in most mobile devices and many desk top computers.

[LRRPF52]

The giveaway is that they have data for bullets they tested on Doppler radar track.

[acourvil]

Thanks for the explanations.

Brian Litz has some comments on Hornady's 4 DOF calculator here. Admittedly a competitor, but always has facts to back up his statements.

[Chrazy-Chris]

I just played around with this a bit today, too. I'm hoping the 123gr is added so I can compare the results to their standard ballistics computer.