Palm Pilot Ballistic Programs

I spent $30 on a Palm Pilot on eBay, delivered. I'm not worried about bringing a $30 thing into the field, so it will be a dedicated Gun Computer, going beside the laser rangefinder. You can take notes with a stylus pen apparently, so I've decided a Palm Pilot Ballistic computer is A Good Thing.
Programming the thing (on a simulator) was a shock, no floating point math (this is a big deal), and 64kb of heap memory. GunSim was using over 4000kb of heap memory, but I was able to work around it.
I'll see how fast it is when it arrives.
I'll do a free basic version and a fancy version, maybe $30.
So $60 for a fancy hand held ballistics machine, cool. You can play games on it too. It gives exactly the same numbers as the online and Destop GunSim programs.
Exebal has a range estimation screen, that could be useful. Exebal has too may screens for my liking, I don't want to calculate point blank range much, certainly not in the field. Other than that, it looks good.
I assume a handheld is for field use, you just want the adjustments for whatever the range, wind and weather is. Comparing muzzle energies I can do at home. Or 2 programs, one  for using with one hand on the rifle, and another for comparing muzzle energies at the bus stop.

Free Blackberry App Improved!

The free Blackberry Ballistics App now does Mils as well as Moa, and allows you to have more rows of results.
Which is totally awesome!
You type in   www.gunsim.com/gunsim.cod into your Blackberry machine, say yes/ok/super/yup to the prompts. Then you click on the icon in the Downloads folder
The app gives you exactly the same results as the GunSim simulator. So you can practice on the simulator online, and have the same information in the field.

Moving targets and lead

It is much harder to hit a moving target than you think.

So let's insult your intelligence:


If the target is moving at 10fps, and it takes a second to get there, the target will have moved a 10 feet.
If the target is moving at 10fps, and it takes 2 seconds to get there, the target will have moved 20 feet.

If the target is moving at 20fps, and it takes a second to get there, the target will have moved  20 feet.
If the target is moving at 20fps, and it takes 2 seconds to get there, the target will have moved 40 feet.


So, for a given target speed and bullet speed, you lead by the same angle at all ranges.

Assuming the bullet doesn't slow down. At short ranges it doesn't slow down much, and at long range you will be hard pressed to hit a moving target with one shot. Shotgun people often swing to get the speed and aim off at an angle related to the speed. That works.

With a 2680fps bullet, the lead is 1 inch per mph at 50 yards. 
So a 4mph target is 4" at 50 yards, 8" at 100 yards.

There is so much nonsense talked about this. People will say "I always lead a deer by 3 feet" without understanding that it depends on how far away the deer is. And what your muzzle velocity is. And what speed the deer is traveling at.

"Zombie at 5 yards, 10mph at 45°, quick, what is the lead?"
No lead at 5 yards at firearms velocities. So pistoleros just need to keep the sights on the target.