The name Applied Ballistics is synonymous with long range precision shooting. It’s founder Bryan Litz started the company in 2009 as an avenue to publish his first book Applied Ballistics For Long Range Shooting. Since then, the company has grown to include numerous industry experts who develop and support an unparalleled product line of accurate and reliable ballistic resources for the long range shooting community. These include numerous books, software, the Litz bullet library, and also seminars.

In this episode, the 6.5 Guys discuss the Spring 2016 – Applied Ballistics seminar which Steve attended in Dallas, TX. Highlights of this episode include interviews with Bryan Litz and Nick Vitalbo.

Who go?

The seminar runs $500 which can seem a bit pricey given all the other expenses associated with our hobby. Besides the opportunity to meet a number of industry leaders, participants receive books and software that essentially cover the price of the course. In other words, the serious shooter would probably purchase these items in the first place so it only makes sense to receive them as part of the seminar. Besides the opportunity to geek out until the wee hours of the night with similarly minded shooters and industry notables, here’s what you get:

• Full library of Applied Ballistics Books and DVD set, valued at $234.75.
• Free copy of Applied Ballistics Analytics software, valued at $200.  (This software will be used often in the seminar)
• Binder including: hand-outs, articles and various assorted utility worksheets.
• Certificate of Course Completion & Audio CD of event content (to be sent to each attendee after the event)

Here’s the agenda from the Spring 2016 Applied Ballistics Seminar:

To find out about upcoming seminars you can go here.

Applied Ballistics presents to a packed house

Discussion with Brian Litz

Steve had an opportunity to interview Brian Litz and you can watch that in the video below. Bryan started Applied Ballistics to publish his first book. He wanted to take information that was typically discussed in engineering terms and make it understandable to the average shooter. Most importantly, he wanted the average shooter to be able to put the information to use. Chances are you’ve been the beneficiary of his work whenever you use a “Litz” ballistic coefficient value in your favorite ballistic calculator. This bullet library started with 120 bullets and now covers over 500.

Brian also discussed his book Accuracy and Precision for Long Range Shooting. In that book he applied the WEZ (Weapons Employment Zone) to small arms. The WEZ concept extends traditional ballistic concepts (elevation and windage) to the probably of hitting the target. For example, if you have a small distant target the WEZ concept takes into account various environmental factors and will tell you what your probability is of hitting that target. This concept is particularly useful when selecting equipment and formulating a training program.

The Modern Advancements series of books can best be described as a journal of his research and development activities. They explore common questions such as the effect of barrel twist at longer ranges, how muzzle velocity affects hit percentages, laser range finders, etc. Volume II explores handloading techniques and what the shooter can do to produce higher quality ammunition. The key objective is to approach the subject matter in a “Myth Busters” science driven approach. They take commonly held beliefs, explore the science behind them and share the results of their testing. One of their more scintillating findings involves annealing and their discovery that it does not have a noticeable impact on accuracy. We can just see the forums lighting up on that topic!

Brian also talked about the objectives of the seminars. Everybody learns in a different way and an interactive environment can be extremely beneficial. The seminars allow participants to take what they have learned from reading and engage in a discussion with experts and participants. Half of the time is typically devoted to questions. Brian likens the seminars to reading an interactive book.

In response to “what are the commonly asked questions” Brian mentioned that there is rarely an answer that applies to every situation. He said the answer depends on the facts an circumstances surrounding each shooter and turned to the subject of meplat uniforming as an example. Another question involves short fat bullets (more predictable performance) versus long and heavy (better performance but less predictability through transonic velocities). Which is better? Again, it depends on the circumstances and objectives that the shooter is trying to achieve. Many of the answers to common questions are situational and the seminar is the perfect environment to explore those questions and answers in a discussion based format.

Discussion with Nick Vitalbo

Steve also had the opportunity to speak with Nick Vitalbo of nVisti Tactical Innovations. The company has been around for five years and a number of the founders worked for Lockheed Martin and participated in the DARPA One Shot program. A key component of the program is the use of lasers to determine wind speed and this information is fed into a ballistic program. A key goal in the founding of nVisti was to get products of this type into the hands of shooters.

nVisti usually partners with other companies to product products. One example is the collaboration with Kestrel and Applied Ballistics where they wrote much of the software. Another example is their collaboration with Wilcox on the RAPTAR product. Long story short, they have positioned themselves as a company that does the electronics and software integration in many of the must have gadgets that long range shooters are craving.

Nick discussed some of their research around laser range finders that will appear in Volume II of Modern Advancements in Long Range Shooting. As discussed in Volume I, a key consideration when choosing a laser range finder is the signal to noise ratio which can be influenced by a number of factors. In Volume II they took things a step further and evaluated 22 laser range finders using a standardized test platform. The result is a performance model for each of the range finders, something that will prove valuable for anybody contemplating a purchase. It is very difficult to compare range finders using factory specifications. While they are generally accurate, they don’t use a common platform to evaluate performance. Nick compares his work on range finders to the work that Brian Litz did in assembling the bullet library where shooters can make an apples to apples comparison of different bullets.

You can get the most out of your current range finder thanks to some tips that Nick provided. You need to understand where the laser spot maps onto the detector of your range finder. While manufacturers do a good job in aligning the two, they are rarely perfect. You can determine this by scanning a target at 100 yards and determining where the range detection drops off relative to the reticle. You’ll want to do this both horizontally and vertically – this pays dividends when ranging targets at distance. Also, wind can significantly degrade the signal to noise ratio of laser range finders. Knowing this, you can moderate your expectations on really windy days.

For more information about Applied Ballistics or the seminars go to the website at: http://appliedballisticsllc.com/

Editor: Ed Mobley (ed@65guys.com)