iPhone App: Ballistic FTE (Field Tactical Edition)

[Member 5605]

I am one of the few (kidding) who own an iPhone.

I always make my phone work for me. If I'm at work I'm using maps, directions, VIN scanners etc. Never a dull moment.

A couple of weeks ago I ran across a program:
Ballistic Field Tactical Edition
<broken link removed>

Decided to play around with it and see how accurate it really was.

Starters:

Couple things to notice on the above image:
1. AR in .223 caliber
2. Round Muzzle velocity
3. 3" Sight height (from center of barrel to center of scope)
4. My sight in at 100 yards is 1.5" high (had to find my zero and adjust it until my 100 yards came out right)

When all of that is punched in and you let the program calculate everything you end up with a ballistic graph like this one: (it's calculated for Remington PSP rounds and not that I will shoot out to 1000 yards.. I normally set them up for 500)




So once you have your information input and its accurate you can set up a HUD where you just dial in your yards and it will tell you how much of a drop and what windage to set... can't seem to get mine to show up. Oh well. Check out the link above for more info.




So. Anyone else use it?

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[JedB]

how much was the app?

 

[Member 5605]

I didn't pay anything for it (jailbreak) but I will purchase it since it's so useful


There are two versions. One is 9.99, the other like I have is 19.99


Only difference between the two is the HUD. And to me that isn't really worth the extra $10

 

[DieselScout]

I have been using the app "Shooter" on my driod for quite sometime. There is probably a thread on here about it already.

Sent from my Droid using Tapatalk

 

[drew]

I have been using the app "Shooter" on my driod for quite sometime. There is probably a thread on here about it already.

Sent from my Droid using Tapatalk

Is this the app? http://www.shooterapp.net/

 

[DieselScout]

Is this the app? http://www.shooterapp.net/

Yeah that is the one. Has a great preloaded bullet database and you can also enter your own custom loads. Its all sorted by rifle, so in my case I have my Stevens in 22-250 and my 700 in 30-06, then all the loads I shoot for each. You can graph a load and compare it with another you've for on the list graphically. Its a pretty cool app.

Sent from my Droid using Tapatalk

 

[Grommit327]

iSnipe is another good one for iphones

 

[Crispy]

BulletFlight for IPHONE is pretty decent

 

[Bacchus]

BulletFlight for IPHONE is pretty decent

I've spent a lot of time this past week with BulletFlight Level 2.

I used it to create printed tables for drop and scope clicks for several different rifles. I made charts to use with 100 yd, 200 yd, 300 yd, and 400 yd zero. I'm making the charts to fit the mini moleskine notebooks (2.5 x 4), and I'll carry one with each rifle case.

BulletFlight is much more versatile than anything I can print out, and I'll bring my iPhone along wherever I shoot, but I also want the notebooks as a backup in case the iPhone conks out or gets left at home.

I've also got Ballistic. Ballistic seems to have a much bigger database than BulletFlight, and I raid the Ballistic database for BC data (if I can't get it from the vendor online) and I input it into BulletFlight. Ballistic is the more impressive program: more charts and graphs, bigger database, and its charts include terminal velocity and energy. I think it also takes more environmental parameters.

BulletFlight is the one I think I'll use in the field, though, because of its "Calculate Simple" feature which only takes range, wind speed, and wind direction as parameters using the famous iPhone spin wheels (all of the other parameters can be entered elsewhere) and outputs vertical and windage parameters (inches, mRad, Clicks) in very large print.

I attached a PDF as an example of what I'm doing.

 

[Bacchus]

One More Thing. Many, if not all, ammo manufacturers publish the performance of their ammo in terms of the vertical drop at several distances (100 yd, 200 yd, 300 yd, etc.) for a specific zero (e.g, 200 yards).

I cross-checked several manufacturer's info with the charts produced by BulletFlight, and the BulletFlight charts were dead on at the manufacturers parameters. I checked CCI Mini-Mag 40 gr, Hornady .30-30 160gr FTX LEVERevolution, Hornady .30-06 150gr SST Superformance, and Winchester .30-06 180gr Super-X Power-Point.

For example, the .30-06 SST per Hornady with a 200 yard zero, at distances of 100, 200, 300, and 400 yards:

1.4, 0, -6.4, -18.9

With BulletFlight, using the Hornady BC of 0.415 and muzzle velocity of 3080 fps, and the .308 diameter and 160gr weight:

1.4, 0, -6.5, -19.0

 

[Bacchus]

And another thing. I don't see where Ballistic will calculate the number of clicks to adjust your scope for a given range. It does give you the MOA drop, so it's not too difficult to make the conversion, but it is a calculation that BulletFlight does for you.

 

[CrossHairs]

I use Ballistic FTE as well. I paid the $19 bucks for it up front. I've found it accurate and easy to use. I like the HUD as well as the dope charts. Of course it's very handy that you can screen shot the iPhone and print the picture, stick it in your ammo box and refer to it when you need to.

 

[CrossHairs]

And another thing. I don't see where Ballistic will calculate the number of clicks to adjust your scope for a given range. It does give you the MOA drop, so it's not too difficult to make the conversion, but it is a calculation that BulletFlight does for you.

Don't have my phone in front of me, so I can't remember how it's done, but there is a setting in Ballistic FTE where you can define clicks as your preference instead of MOA. The HUD and chart will then display the number of clicks instead. Quite handy.

 

[Bacchus]

Maybe you're thinking of the setting that allows you to switch between mRad and MOA ? Or maybe I'm thinking of BulletFlight. Regardless, for Ballistic to allow you to switch to a clicks reading it would have to know how many MOA per click, and I don't remember seeing an input parameter for that.

One issue I've run into is manufacturers' published muzzle velocities for .22 LR. I had to do some digging to satisfy myself that those numbers are for rifle barrels. When I attempted to make up some charts for a .22 pistol, I realized that its muzzle velocity (MV) would be less than for a longer rifle barrel. Fortunately, I found a web site (sad how I blithely assume what I see on the web is correct ) that published handgun MV for several .22 brands. I was looking at CCI, and it shows that most CCI .22 variants are about 86% MV of the rifle MV. I would have guessed slower, but since the volume of gas behind the bullet expands as it pushes the bullet down the barrel, the force pushing the bullet is reducing, so the acceleration it imparts to the bullet as it goes down the barrel is much less than the initial acceleration.

A second issue is that many, if not most, of the handgun ammo manufacturers are not publishing (that I could find) ballistic coefficients (BC). I found a web site that reverse calculates BC when you enter two velocities with a specified distance between them. For example, 1160 fps at 25 yards, 980 fps at 100 yards, so 1160 fps, 980 fps, 75 yards (100 - 25). I then cross-checked the BC by cranking the BC and MV into BulletFlight, generating the table, and verifying the drops in the table matched the drops published by the manufacturers.

Cool stuff; I'm documenting everything in my spreadsheets, including sources for information, because I know that if I don't look at this for a year I'm going to wonder what it all means.

 

[Bacchus]

I don't have the BC calculation web site with me, but the web site to translate handgun muzzle velocities for .22 is

<broken link removed>

You have to scroll down three screens to see the chart.

 

[2506]

I would suggest you use your iPhone to go to handloads.com's ballistic calculator page. You can enter more variables, you get the information you need, and it's free. No fancy graphs, sadly. It's useless unless you have a chrony, but if you're even semi-serious about reloading/shooting then you've already been using one when you shoot.

 

[Bacchus]

That's a great site, but I don't see any variables that Ballistics doesn't also accept.

The great thing about a mobile app is that I can take it with me to where I'm actually shooting. The parameters that I can't predict on a web site are wind speed, wind direction, and target elevation. To me, that is where the mobile app is king, because I can wait until I'm almost ready to shoot to enter that data.

But, for creating the charts I'm making that do not include those parameters, I'll certainly take a look at downloads.com.

 

[2506]

I get the mobility part. But can you enter your rifle's actual MV with a given load, or do you have to pick from a pre-set menu of factory data?

 

[Grommit327]

I get the mobility part. But can you enter your rifle's actual MV with a given load, or do you have to pick from a pre-set menu of factory data?

With iSnipe you can do either. They even have a list of bullets w/ size and BC so you can enter your MV to go with it. Enter wind speed and direction and it will give you a mildot crosshair that shows where to aim for quick shots and amount of clicks to make on the scope if you want to go that route

 

[erslll]

I get the mobility part. But can you enter your rifle's actual MV with a given load, or do you have to pick from a pre-set menu of factory data?

Yes, FTE lets you enter your actual MV along with the specs of your gun, weather, etc. Also has an angle finder so if you are shooting up/down hill, it will calculate for that also.