The National Shooting Sport Foundation (NSSF) has released its new Where2Shoot app for the Apple’s iPhone and iPod Touch. The App — available for free in the iTunes App Store — puts North America’s most comprehensive directory of shooting ranges in the palm of your hand.
This free App provides the functionality of NSSF’s WhereToShoot.org website in a smartphone-friendly format. You’ll find listings of literally thousands of ranges and shooting clubs, in locations across the country. Listings are updated frequently with range information in every U.S. state and Canadian province. Click a button to find ranges near you or you can search by state, by zip code, or by keyword. You can also limit your search to specific types of facilities (such as indoor pistol ranges). The App provides specifics about each range, including shooting activities offered and contact information.
The Where2Shoot App also includes news, safety procedures, and firearms tips. New tips for hunters and shooters are also added regularly. Visit the App store to learn more about the Where2Shoot App or download it for free. You can also scan the QR code above with your device to download the free App.
Kowa Sporting Optics now offers a DigiScoping adapter for the iPhone 4 and 4S models. Kowa’s TSN-IP4S iPhone adapter comes with two standard rings, one for the 880/770 series scopes and one for the BD/SV/YF series of binoculars. Similar in design to Meopta’s Digiscoping adapter released last year, the Kowa product holds an iPhone securely and attaches to the rear ocular of a spotting scope (or binoculars) using a cylindrical sleeve (aka lens ring). Crafted from aluminum, the precision-fit Kowa lens rings are coated with a soft material so they won’t mar your eyepiece(s).
The Kowa adapter comes with two standard rings, one for the 88/77 series scopes and one for the BD/SV/YF series of binoculars. Additional adapter rings for the Genesis 33 and 44 series of binoculars and TSN 660/600/82SV spotting scope eyepieces (except long eye-relief eyepieces) and 21x, 32x, and 50x High Lander eyepieces may be purchased separately. The lightweight adapter is made of an epoxy resin material that will not damage the finish of your iPhone.
For more information, visit the Kowa’s Digiscoping Webpage. Watch the video below to see how the Adapter holds the iPhone on spotting scopes.
Meopta USA now offers additional versions of its award-winning MeoPix® iScoping Adapter to fit Swarovski, Leica and Zeiss spotting scopes and binoculars, as well as most popular mid-level optics brands. With this iScoping Adapter, you can use your iPhone to record still images or video of the view through your spotting scope. This is great for capturing views of your target, or to record mirage conditions and flag positions for later study.
Available in several eyecup diameters, the MeoPix® iScoping adapter correctly positions an iPhone® 4/4S to a spotting scope or binocular eyepiece. Proprietary technology provides a secure fit to the iPhone and precise alignment to the spotting scope or binocular eyepiece. Priced at $59.99, the iScoping Adapter is sold by Cabelas.com and major optics dealers. “The overwhelming responses and feedback about the MeoPix iScoping Adapter convinced us to make versions to fit most popular brands of optics” said Meopta USA GM Reinhard Seipp.
If you use a balance-beam scale to weigh powder and reloading components, here’s a clever way to magnify the view of the beam tip. Of course you can use an old-fashioned magnifying glass, clamped in place, to upsize the view. But now there’s a parallax-free, electronic solution that works for anyone with an iPhone or Android OS smartphone.
Forum member Allan E. (aka “1066”) discovered that he could use the camera on his smartphone to display and magnify the image of a balance-beam tip. This works via a Magnifying Glass App you can download for free. Just turn on the smartphone, activate the Magnifying Glass App and zoom-in to suit your preference. Alan explains: “This saves those tired eyes. It’s much more accurate because there’s no parallax — the lens is directly in line with the pointer so we can see [the pointer] off the screen from any angle. It’s a much clearer view, and it costs nothing.”
You’ll need to fabricate some kind of stand or clamp for the phone. Allan created a smartphone mount with a bit of wire, rubber bands, and a bullet box. You can see the system working in the video below. (The video starts by showing a webcam + laptop balance-beam monitor system. The Smartphone system demo begins at the 1:30″ time-mark.)
Magnifying Glass Apps for iPhones and Android Phones
There are numerous ‘magnifying glass’ programs for Apple and Android smartphones that use the built-in camera. Most include a zoom function and auto-focus. You might try a couple different Apps and see which works best for you. Some perform better in low light, while others resolve better. All of the following have 4-star or better user ratings:
Leupold has launched a redesigned website with more intuitive navigation and many new features. Products are now organized into four main categories: Hunting and Shooting, Tactical, Observation, and Golf. Drop-down menus under each heading shorten the time for users to locate detailed info on specific products. An enhanced Leupold Scope Finder feature allows users to filter the entire catalog down through six categories:
Type of firearm
Price range
Maximum magnification range
Objective size range
Choice of Bullet Drop Compensation reticles
Illuminated or non-illuminated
With the new Scope Finder, a Comparison Tool lets users review scopes side-by-side. Key scope specs appear in adjacent columns for easy comparison shopping. Mike Slack, Leupold’s Sr. manager of advertising and communications notes: “The site’s new Scope Finder tool should help consumers quickly find the right product for their needs.”
New Leupold Site Works Well with Tablets and Smartphones
Leupold designed its new website to be fast to load and quick to navigate for users with smartphones and tablets. iPhone and Android phone users will note that the navigation is much simpler and most function screens can be utilized without excessive scrolling.
Story Tip by EdLongrange. We welcome reader submissions.
If you have a firearms collection, you need an inventory of the guns, with serial numbers, photos, and detailed descriptions. This is important for insurance and law enforcement purposes. If your firearms are ever stolen or destroyed in a fire or other natural disaster you need a complete inventory if you expect to get a proper insurance payout. There is nothing wrong with writing down descriptions of your guns in a “hard-copy” notebook or ledger. However, many gun owners don’t bother to take photos of their firearms, making it difficult to claim full value during loss. Additionally, ledgers are easy to misplace, and, in the event of a fire, your “hard copy” gun inventory may go up in smoke.
JHSTech.com has created Gun Inventory, a handy $0.99 smart-phone App that makes it easy to create a detailed inventory of all your firearms, complete with photos. Gun Inventory works with iPhones, iPods, iPads and all iOS devices (no Android version yet). Using this App, in a few minutes you can inventory all your guns, complete with photos taken with your iPhone’s camera. The app allows you to fill in details such as Make, Model, Serial Number, Finish, Barrel Length, and any other info that can help identify your firearms. After the info is saved, your guns are organized into a easily-navigated list, that you’ll have with you when you leave home. Need an inventory print-out? Just email the list from your iPhone or iPad to any web-mail address.
How Secure Is Your List on a Phone?
In reviewing this product, we initially thought: “It’s a really BAD IDEA to carry around a list of your guns on a cell phone”. If a bad guy accesses your iPhone gun list, he learns you are a prime target for theft, and, unfortunately, your home address can be easily traced from your cell number. But the creators of the Gun Inventory App have given some thought to security. First, the App has an optional password protected login screen. By all means, if you use this App, use the password protection! (We wish the log-in screen did not say “Gun Inventory” — that’s enough to tell thieves that you’re a gun owner. The App developers should create a “stealth” entry screen with a title such as “Baby Pictures”.) Second, if you lose your phone, you can delete your gun list using the remote wiping features that come on iOS devices. The Gun Inventory App can be purchased for just $0.99 through the iTunes App Store.
Technology keeps moving forward, and the NRA is moving with it. You may be surprised, but now the NRA has its own App that runs on iPhones and iPad tablets. This App provides instant access to the latest gun-related content from the NRA News, the NRA-ILA website, the NRABlog, and NRA social media sites (such as the NRA’s Facebook page). You can also download and watch NRA videos, search for NRA activities, check event schedules, and much more.
NRA App is Free for a Limited Time
If this sounds like something you’d like to add to your digital arsenal, then head on over to the iTunes store and add the NRA app to your collection. But don’t hesitate — this NRA App is FREE for a limited time only. As with other opportunities in life, you snooze, you loose.
Note the link above only goes directly to the NRA App order page if you already have iTunes installed on your computer. Otherwise the link sends you to the iTunes home page.
Realtree offers an iPhone application (“App”) designed for hunters that displays up-to-date radar images, current conditions, wind speed and direction on an interactive Google map. The Realtree Weather App for iPhone is now available on the iTunes store for $3.99.
Realtree Weather automatically detects users’ current locations with a blue pin. Browsers can also simply type in the name of a location of interest and the application drops a pin on the map, marking that location and providing current weather conditions, temperatures, forecasts and highs and lows.
The iMap-enabled Realtree Weather application, developed by weather leader Weather Decision Technologies, Inc., (WDT) detects the user’s location and provides local radar data, as well as current conditions, a 7-day forecast, humidity, wind direction and dew-point data. The Realtree application delivers severe weather information, including the latest US radar, IR satellite and lightning strikes. The Realtree App also provides direct access to national conservation and hunting news.
Radar Weather Data Updated every Five Minutes
Using the “pinch zoom” method to zoom in and out of the map, users can access detailed radar information, all the way down to street level. The radar can animate a continuous loop, allowing hunters to better predict storm paths. The radar data is updated every five minutes.
“Weather is a high priority for any hunter or outdoor sportsman,” said Mike Gauthier, vice president of sales for WDT. “With Realtree’s mobile application, we are bringing the most powerful, innovative and accurate weather, radar and satellite data available in the United States, transforming any iPhone into a reliable decision-making tool for the nation’s 23 million hunters.”
Here’s a simple but cleverly-designed product that lets you easily record photos and videos from your range and hunting sessions. The new MeoPix iScoping Adapter will connect an Apple iPhone to your spotting scope (or even some binoculars). Anything you can see through the scope can now be captured by an iPhone. Record your shot locations on a distant target. Or record images of mirage you see through the scope for later analysis. Hunters can capture images of distant prey, and record successful shots.
Adapter Works with Many Brands of Optics
The MeoPix bracket is a universal-type device that was developed to allow the iPhone 4 or 4s models to interface with ANY binocular or spotting scope eyepiece. When fitted to a long-range optic, the MeoPix transforms a smart phone into a handy, long-range photo and movie capturing tool. The Apple-approved MeoPix iScoping adapter attaches securely to the iPhone. Meopta claims the MeoPix bracket ensures precise alignment and excellent image quality.
How good are the images and video taken with an iPhone in the MeoPix adapter? According to Meopta USA GM Reinhard Seipp, “When paired with our premium spotting scopes and binoculars, the MeoPix adapter provides extraordinary close-up photos and movies with clarity and resolution that rival traditional photography.” Seipp even thinks his MeoPix adapter will render traditional camera-based Digiscoping “obsolete”, for those who prefer the convenience of the iPhone and its ability to organize and upload images from the field.
The MeoPix iScoping adapter will be formally introduced in January, at the 2012 SHOT Show in Las Vegas. For more information, visit MeoptaSportsOptics.com, or call Meopta USA at (800) 828-8928.
ShotMuse3 is a handy new App for iPhone users. Functioning like a log-book, this multi-purpose App can record shot locations, scores, and wind values during practice. In addition, ShotMuse3 has built-in databases that can list your ammo supplies and your firearms inventory. (However, for security reasons, you may decide NOT to place a list of your firearms in your iPhone.) ShotMuse3, priced at just $3.99, can be purchased via the Apple App Store. For more information, visit the Apple App Store or contact developer Mike Lersbak: auxxpad [at] gmail.com or (509) 435-1640
Save Chron Data to Your iPhone
One feature we really like is the Chronograph Mode. We often use a PVM-21. This is a great chronograph, but the PVM’s data recording software is complicated and buggy. So, we usually dispense with a laptop and record our chron data manually. With ShotMuse’s Chrono Mode, you can record your chrono results at the range, and then email the data to your main computer. Note — you must still manually input shot values into the App –ShotMuse3 does NOT automatically connect with the chrono.
ShotMuse 3 Functions and Features:
Target Practice Mode – This handy feature lets you record shot placements and shot values during practice. As with a manual log-book, you can record wind value and direction for each string, along with temperature and other conditions. A variety of target types can be selected the ShotMuse Target Archive.
Chronograph Mode – Input shot velocities from your chronograph when doing load development. Weather, distance and range can also be recorded with each string.
Weapons Database – Keep track of your weapons including weapon data, shot count, strings shot, and any other notes or information you want to record.
Ammo Database – Track the ammo you use — both store-bought and your own reloads. You can also store notes and photos.
Timer Mode – The built-in shot timer can record your shot strings. Both individual shot times/intervals and total string time can be recorded. This is useful for action pistol shooters and 3-Gun competitors.
The National Shooting Sport Foundation (NSSF) has released its new Where2Shoot app for the Apple’s iPhone and iPod Touch. The App — available for free in the iTunes App Store — puts North America’s most comprehensive directory of shooting ranges in the palm of your hand.
The Kowa adapter comes with two standard rings, one for the 88/77 series scopes and one for the BD/SV/YF series of binoculars. Additional adapter rings for the Genesis 33 and 44 series of binoculars and TSN 660/600/82SV spotting scope eyepieces (except long eye-relief eyepieces) and 21x, 32x, and 50x High Lander eyepieces may be purchased separately. The lightweight adapter is made of an epoxy resin material that will not damage the finish of your iPhone.
Magnifying Glass Apps for iPhones and Android Phones
Realtree Weather automatically detects users’ current locations with a blue pin. Browsers can also simply type in the name of a location of interest and the application drops a pin on the map, marking that location and providing current weather conditions, temperatures, forecasts and highs and lows.
Here’s a simple but cleverly-designed product that lets you easily record photos and videos from your range and hunting sessions. The new MeoPix iScoping Adapter will connect an Apple iPhone to your spotting scope (or even some binoculars). Anything you can see through the scope can now be captured by an iPhone. Record your shot locations on a distant target. Or record images of mirage you see through the scope for later analysis. Hunters can capture images of distant prey, and record successful shots.
