FREE Ballistics Program from Berger Bullets
There’s a lot of buzz about ballistics programs for smartphones. Those are handy, to be sure, but most people still need a solid, full-featured program to run on their home computers. Berger Bullets offers a sophisticated ballistics programs for MS Windows computers that works really well, and lets you print out results. Up-to-Date G7 BCs for Berger projectiles are built-in to the program, and the price is right — FREE.
CLICK HERE to Download Berger Ballistics Program
The program is basic enough to be easy to use, but flexible enough to allow you to calculate custom ballistics for your rifle and load. The program accounts for all the basic external ballistic parameters including bullet BC and muzzle velocity, atmospherics, uphill/downhill shooting, etc. The output tabulates velocity, energy and time of flight as a function of range. Bullet path and wind deflection are displayed in your choice of inches, centimeters, MOA or MILS.
Instructions for Program
On the Berger Bullets Blog (1/26/2010), You’ll find a description of program features and a complete set of instructions. Here are instructions for the bullet variables: “The bullet inputs are straightforward. The BC can be entered in reference to either the G1 or G7 standard. You can find the G1 or G7 BC for your bullet either printed on the bullet box label, or on our products page. For accurate results, you should measure the muzzle velocity with a good chronograph. If you don’t have access to a chronograph, you can estimate the muzzle velocity based on your load data.”
Tips for Best Results
Bryan Litz includes tips on getting the most from the Berger Ballistics program. Some of Bryan’s suggestions will also help you when working with other ballistics software:G1 vs. G7 BC: The accuracy of the ballistic solution is only as accurate as the inputs you give it. The advertised BCs for Berger bullets are established by actual field firing tests over long range and are very accurate. Using the properly referenced BC (G7 vs. G1) for the bullet you’re modeling is important. For any bullet with a boat tail, we recommend using the G7 BC.
Muzzle Velocity: Knowing your true muzzle velocity is important when calculating external ballistics. It’s best to measure your muzzle velocity directly with a chronograph.
Altitude and Atmosphere: If you want a truly accurate long-range trajectory prediction, you can’t ignore atmospheric effects. This is especially true the farther you get from standard conditions (sea level altitude, 59 degrees Fahrenheit, 0% humidity).
Scope Verification: It’s important to verify the most important link between the calculated ballistics and your point of impact: your scope. If the ballistics program calculates 30.0 MOA of drop for a particular shot, and you dial your scope to 30.0 MOA, are you sure it’s giving you exactly 30.0 MOA? In reality, many scopes have enough error in them to cause misses at long range. It’s important to verify the value of your scope clicks by firing groups at short range.
If you have further questions not answered on Berger’s Blog Page, email Bryan.Litz [at] bergerbullets.com. NOTE: If your computer won’t run the program, please download and install this Java update: http://www.java.com/en/download/index.jsp. This is a Windows PC program. You may have problems trying to run it on a MAC in emulation.
Story sourced by Edlongrange.Similar Posts:
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Tags: Altitude, ballistics, Berger, Bryan Litz, G1, G7, Velocity
The program seems to be more or less the same Bryan Litz distributed accompanying his groundbreaking book.
It has the big advantage of not being overloaded with all kinds of bells and whistles.
In my view ideally suited for getting started in the field of using ballistics software.
Not a Mac-friendly download format!
Unless X11 is installed and something like the free Darwine app:
http://darwine.en.softonic.com/mac
.EXE files are a waste of time.
(Note also that there’s no official support for Darwine on Snow Leopard / 10.6.x)
The program on the disc Brian included in his book WILL run on most newer Macs as long as all the Java stuff is installed.
SP,
We did clearly say that this is a program for Windows computers. Thanks for the info on the PC emulation problems on MAC. I will add a few more words to the story to discourage MAC downloaded.
A quick note…when you hover the mouse to change the Atmosphere setting…be patient as it takes a few seconds for the window to pop up for you to change the setting.
Quick and easy to use
Roy
I’m no expert on Java but I thought the whole point was that it was the “write-once, run anywhere language” that just needed a Java Virtual Machine to run. I suppose it must have to do with it being changed to an .exe
Jon is exactly correct. Properly done Java is completely cross platform. If you don’t want it to be cross platform you could write it in something else that is less resource demanding.
This is rather puzzling. Somebody wasn’t thinking this thing through. Nevertheless, it is free and free is good.
do you make bullets for 270 web. i mean the hold bullet? if not whear can i get some. put me on your mail list.
Would like any infromation that you have on the berger bullets. My son and I are just getting into reloading so what I need to know is,we use the imr 4350 powder how many grains of powder do we need for 300 win mag and a 30-06 shooting a 210 grain berger bullet. Any help you can give will be appricated.
Thank you
Bruce Buchanan