more like observations, perhaps
well, I didn't actually know it was a 5.11 when i bought it. I just saw "ballistic calculator" and bought it, because i shoot a lot of long range and my palm pilot that I used to run some ballistic software on is broken. I was a little surprised to see the 5.11 name when it showed up. anyway...
The first thing i noticed was that it's quite fat. none of my long-sleeved shirts will fit over it, so the cuffs sort of ride up my forearm. somewhat annoying.
I have also managed to bang the face of it on numerous objects (unintentionally, of course) and no scratches so far, so that's good.
It has both digital and analog timekeeping, which is nice, but somewhat odd. I guess I've had it about two weeks and both the digital and analog have lost roughly 1 minute. This is the only watch i've worn in the past 15 years, since those digital calculator watches were en vogue in my geek circles in the 80s, so I couldn't tell you if losing 1 minute in two weeks is relatively good or bad for a medium-priced watch.
One thing that is pretty annoying is that the ballistic info shows up on the digital display, which is behind the analog watch hands, so if it's between 4 and 8 o'clock, or near the bottom of the hour, the hands obstruct the view of the digital readout. Very annoying.
The calculator itself appears to be spot on. I took my 6mmXC Etronx out for a spin today and fired 9 shots from 300 to 900 yrds using the dope from the watch. I entered the BC for my SMK 107 grainers, the temperature, sight height, etc. Then entered the range and wind, angle, etc.
The wind was probably the 2nd worst I've ever shot in. Strong gusts from 12 o'clock, fish tailing back and forth, as best I could tell, from about 1 minute left to about 2 minutes right, but we didn't have any wind flags, and it was 60 degrees, so there was almost no mirage.
The targets were steel, roughly 5" wide and maybe 13-14" tall. So, reasonably forgiving on elevation, but you've got to be holding well under a minute on windage past 500 yrds.
With a 200 yrd zero, the watch gave me the following dope:
300 yrds = 2.2 minutes up, but i used 3 minutes, result was 1 for 1
500 yrds = 7.6 minutes, i missed the first shot to the right, then hit next two, so 2 for 3
600 yrds = 10.7 minutes, 1 for 1
700 yrds = 14.3 minutes, 1 for 1
800 yrds = 18.2 minutes, 1 for 1
900 yrds = 22.6 minutes, and the target here was a big steel disk, maybe 2-3 feet diameter. I fired twice and couldn't tell if I hit or not. assume 0 for 2, but don't know, because if I'm hitting something 5" wide at 800, i shouldn't be THAT far off a 3' circle at 900. oh well
Firing like this, I found the watch pretty easy to manipulate, and although I wasn't timing it, I'd estimate roughly 15 seconds from the time I started poking buttons, to the time I got a solution from it. That's a good bit faster than digging through my data book.
and I like the way it's set up where you have your static data (MV, BC, etc) input already through one menu, and then enter dynamic data (range to target, wind speed, wind direction, angle, etc).
It would be keen if it had the ability to keep static data for a second rifle or cartridge at the same time, so you could compute two solutions at the same time, but i recognize that would make the interface a little more complex.
The only other thing I've found odd about the watch is that it makes a small chirp on the hour, and a second chirp one minute and 3 or 4 seconds past the hour, and there appears to be no way to disable this.
overall though, if this thing lasts a couple years, I'll be quite pleased.
well, I didn't actually know it was a 5.11 when i bought it. I just saw "ballistic calculator" and bought it, because i shoot a lot of long range and my palm pilot that I used to run some ballistic software on is broken. I was a little surprised to see the 5.11 name when it showed up. anyway...
The first thing i noticed was that it's quite fat. none of my long-sleeved shirts will fit over it, so the cuffs sort of ride up my forearm. somewhat annoying.
I have also managed to bang the face of it on numerous objects (unintentionally, of course) and no scratches so far, so that's good.
It has both digital and analog timekeeping, which is nice, but somewhat odd. I guess I've had it about two weeks and both the digital and analog have lost roughly 1 minute. This is the only watch i've worn in the past 15 years, since those digital calculator watches were en vogue in my geek circles in the 80s, so I couldn't tell you if losing 1 minute in two weeks is relatively good or bad for a medium-priced watch.
One thing that is pretty annoying is that the ballistic info shows up on the digital display, which is behind the analog watch hands, so if it's between 4 and 8 o'clock, or near the bottom of the hour, the hands obstruct the view of the digital readout. Very annoying.
The calculator itself appears to be spot on. I took my 6mmXC Etronx out for a spin today and fired 9 shots from 300 to 900 yrds using the dope from the watch. I entered the BC for my SMK 107 grainers, the temperature, sight height, etc. Then entered the range and wind, angle, etc.
The wind was probably the 2nd worst I've ever shot in. Strong gusts from 12 o'clock, fish tailing back and forth, as best I could tell, from about 1 minute left to about 2 minutes right, but we didn't have any wind flags, and it was 60 degrees, so there was almost no mirage.
The targets were steel, roughly 5" wide and maybe 13-14" tall. So, reasonably forgiving on elevation, but you've got to be holding well under a minute on windage past 500 yrds.
With a 200 yrd zero, the watch gave me the following dope:
300 yrds = 2.2 minutes up, but i used 3 minutes, result was 1 for 1
500 yrds = 7.6 minutes, i missed the first shot to the right, then hit next two, so 2 for 3
600 yrds = 10.7 minutes, 1 for 1
700 yrds = 14.3 minutes, 1 for 1
800 yrds = 18.2 minutes, 1 for 1
900 yrds = 22.6 minutes, and the target here was a big steel disk, maybe 2-3 feet diameter. I fired twice and couldn't tell if I hit or not. assume 0 for 2, but don't know, because if I'm hitting something 5" wide at 800, i shouldn't be THAT far off a 3' circle at 900. oh well
Firing like this, I found the watch pretty easy to manipulate, and although I wasn't timing it, I'd estimate roughly 15 seconds from the time I started poking buttons, to the time I got a solution from it. That's a good bit faster than digging through my data book.
and I like the way it's set up where you have your static data (MV, BC, etc) input already through one menu, and then enter dynamic data (range to target, wind speed, wind direction, angle, etc).
It would be keen if it had the ability to keep static data for a second rifle or cartridge at the same time, so you could compute two solutions at the same time, but i recognize that would make the interface a little more complex.
The only other thing I've found odd about the watch is that it makes a small chirp on the hour, and a second chirp one minute and 3 or 4 seconds past the hour, and there appears to be no way to disable this.
overall though, if this thing lasts a couple years, I'll be quite pleased.
my point of aim was a hole about 1 inch below the edge of the photograph.
