Which Kestrel?

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Swifty Morgan

New member
I want to get a Kestrel. I used one this weekend, on loan from the place where I shot. Is there a particular model I should pick?

I see some models are limited to 3 guns. That would be annoying, but I guess it's not terrible.

It looks like the 5700 Elite is not great unless you blow an extra hundred for connectivity. The Hornady model has a Hornady bullet library in it, but that doesn't seem all that useful.
 
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Swifty Morgan

New member
Not a popular question!

I decided to try the 5700 Elite. You can shove 30 guns into it, although you can also store a lot of guns on your phone and shoot them into other Kestrels as needed. It has a few other features that seem useful.

I'm thinking maybe I should have bought the Hornady model. It only stores 3 guns, and it lacks a few features, but it has some kind of fancy Hornady bullet library in it. I don't know how useful that is. Hope I made the right choice.

The pricing on these things seems nuts. The Hornady is awfully close the Elite, but the price difference is $200.
 
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std7mag

New member
Good question!
I use Strelok Pro for my ballistics calculations
I'm looking more for wind, direction, barometer, temp.
I guess more a mobile weather station.

You can get that with Strelok Pro, but it reads off of the nearest weather station. In most cases an airport.
Which could be 20 miles from my actual location.
 
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Swifty Morgan

New member
I decided I needed a rangefinder. I'm tired of dragging a tape measure through manure. Today I found out there are rangefinders that communicate with the Kestrel. That's unbelievably cool.
 
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Swifty Morgan

New member
Incidentally, I saw a website where a guy tested a bunch of Kestrel-compatible rangefinders. The only ones that really did well at long distances were very expensive. Then there was the Leica 2800.com, which did okay. The Sig something or other didn't do well at all. I would hate to buy a rangefinder to go out to x yards and find out it really only reached 0.6x.
 
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std7mag

New member
Like Wahsben said, weatherstation that talks with your ballistic calculator.

Who gives a crap if Pete talks to Bob, if your getting distorted info from both or each?!

Rangefinder for distance. Period, that's it!
Weather station tells you the freak'n weather.
You'll get better, more simplified info from each.

BTW, if you get a rangefinder without angle correction, Strelok can handle that too.

Your going gadget crazy!
Slow down!
Save your money for things that are useful!
Like ammo for more trigger time!
 
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Swifty Morgan

New member
I had to get a Kestrel because I trained on it, and I plan to go back to the same place for more classes. During my first class, I learned what a pain it is when everyone else is doing something different.

I didn't buy a rangefinder, but I will need a monocular for the second class, so I feel like I should get one that also ranges.
 
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std7mag

New member
Yeaaahhhh.
I don't think Mel80 used a monocular to shoot 6.5 Grendel to 1,700 yards.
I didn't see one used when Aaron Davidson's son shot a bull elk at over 1,300 yards.
I haven't seen one at a 1,000 yard match yet. Including the Army & Marine's teams.
And i KNOW that Samantha Smitchko doesn't use one shooting King Of 2 Miles.

But hey, if you NEED one... :rolleyes:
 
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std7mag

New member
Essentially it's 1/2 of a binocular.
Light weight, easy to put in a pocket, but 1/2 the field of view from binoculars.
Spend as little money as you can on them!
Hurts less when they are crammed in the back on the closet shelf!

May want to address this with BartB, Unclenick, and some others that shoot long range matches regularly.
If it were me, i think i'd be looking at other options for shooting schools.
Just say'n.
 
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