On the Level — Use Your iPhone’s Leveling App at the Range
Many shooters are familiar with ballistics tables, weather programs, and even wind meters for smart devices, but few may know about a very handy Leveling Tool that comes factory-installed on Apple iPhones. The leveling function is a little-known option in Apple’s Compass App. It works well for a multitude of tasks.
There are a numerous reasons that a leveling tool should be in every rifleman’s range bag. From leveling optics during mounting to figuring out how much extra compensation is going to be required for a tricky angled shot, knowing just how far off things are from plumb can go a long way towards realizing success in the field.
This writer has used the leveling app on his iPhone to level a rifle on a rest while at the range. It definitely worked for “field expedient” leveling duties. That’s especially important for long-range applications. Just one degree of cant (tilt) can move your point of impact 7 inches at 1000 yards.
Of course, the iPhone level doesn’t use an actual bubble to find angles. Rather, it relies on the device’s sophisticated accelerometer to do so, and with a great degree of accuracy. Navigating to the level is done by first selecting the Compass App, at which point the device will need to be calibrated by rotating it a full 360 degrees. Once the compass is fully calibrated, simply make right swipe gesture to bring up the level — it will start operating immediately.
From there, use is intuitive and easy, like most iPhone Apps. Switching from horizontal plane to vertical is done by simply changing the physical axis of the phone. How do you know when you’ve got things just right — well the entire lower half of the screen turns green when everything is perfectly level. You’ll also see a zero° read-out, like this:
Bottom Line: If you already own an iPhone, you should definitely give this App a try. The price is right (free), and for a wide variety of tasks the iPhone Level App is actually pretty handy.
Similar Posts:
- Tech Tip: Use Your iPhone as a Leveling Device
- Use Your Smartphone as a Level in the Shop and at the Range
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- Digital Leveling Devices — Level Your Rifle or Check Shot Angles
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Tags: App, Axis, Bubble Level, iPhone, Level
And for those of us who are sick to death of reading about Apple BS, here is a free level app for Android:
Johnson Bubble Level is a free application for Android phones (i.e., Motorola Droid) with an accelerometer (the chip that allows your phone display to move when its tilted). The application creates an image of a spirit level bubble tool vial on the screen of the phone and has a readout in 10ths of degrees.
Works in three orientations: flat phone (surface level), horizontal phone and vertical phone
Calibration tool feature included
Accuracy displayed to tenths
Read “level” in various modes: degrees, percent, inches/foot (fractional & decimal), mm/m
Hold feature included
Sound feature included
Use it to straighten shelves, adjust hanging pictures, or cheat on your golf putts
Works with all Google Android smartphone operating systems
Johnson Level works hard everyday to make the best levels on Earth. As a thank you, please take an extra 20% off any of our patented Glo-View products. If the order is over $50, get free shipping. Enter coupon code ACTIONXL. Use it for yourself or give a unique gift.
Download the level app for Android on the Google Play store:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.actionxl.bubblelevel.johnson
iPhone comes w/ the app. Just say here’s for Android… don’t always need a turf war.