Simplifying Long Range: Kestrel’s New 5700 ‘Easy Mode’— SHOT Show 2018

Kestrel 5700 Ballistics Weather Meter. Kestrels can be very difficult to master. Kestrels new model features an Easy Button!

You may be familiar with the “Kestrel story.” Scores of us saved our money and bought a nice precision rifle and scope. We find a load that groups sub-moa at 100 yards; learn the fundamentals and get proficient out to 500 yards. When it comes to the time when you want to push out to distance, you go out and buy a Kestrel 5700 ballistic wind meter to assist in getting atmospheric and wind data. You power it up and have no idea what to do next! Unless you have been formally trained on a Kestrel 5700, you may stumble through learning how to use one.

Kestrel 5700 Innovations

Over the last couple of years, I’ve attended several classes at Accuracy 1st, where they spend an extensive amount of time on the Kestrel 5700.  However, thankfully Kestrel literally put an “Easy Mode” in their new Kestrel 5700 Ballistics Weather Meter.

Inside the box was a detailed and comprehensive quick start guide. Downloading the Kestrel LiNK Ballistic application to my phone, I synced the Kestrel 5700 Ballistic Weather Meter and built a gun profile. The application is awesome. As you are building out your gun profile, if you have questions, you click on a field header, and it will tell you in simple terms what the field means. After building a gun profile, I sent it to the Kestrel 5700 Ballistics Weather Meter.

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Screenshot of Kestrel Link Ballistics application. The application was very easy to use. End users can click on the field headers for more information.

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I clicked on the Ballistic Coefficient heading.

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Making it Easier

Going to the main screen in the Kestrel 5700, I set the Kestrel to “Easy Mode.” After selecting “Easy Mode,” you are taken to a screen that shows holds for elevation and windage. Below the elevation and wind holds are a set of variables that can be adjusted to attain a firing solution.

The first variable is the Target Range. If you click on Target Range, you can toggle between yards or meters. After you have selected your unit of length, you simply use the left or right arrows until you have found your distance.

Next is the Target Setup. Selecting Target Setup, the Kestrel will prompt you through a series of screens that will capture temperature, density altitude, wind, humidity, pressure, and direction of fire. At this point, you fire.

Easy Mode also has the ability for a shooter to true muzzle velocity. By selecting Cal MV Guide, the Kestrel will advise an end user to select a target between a certain range, shoot at it, and tell the Kestrel how many mils of adjustment it took to hit the target. This will true the algorithm in the firing solution.

Pricing & Availability

By selecting “Easy Mode” the system was easy to use and very intuitive. The Quick Start guide was helpful, and the phone application was very easy to use. If you like to hunt or shoot PRS style competitions, I strongly recommend the Kestrel 5700 Ballistics Weather Meter. Also if you primarily shoot in supersonic and transonic space, the Kestrel 5700 Ballistics Weather Meter will do everything you need it to do.

If you do a lot of extreme long range shooting, where you are pushing deep into the subsonic range, and you need to calculate drop scale factors, I would save your money and get the Kestrel 5700 Elite with Applied Ballistics Weather Meter. As previously mentioned, I have taken formal classes on using a Kestrel 5700 Elite with Applied Ballistics Weather Meter, and the new 5700 Ballistics Weather meter simplifies the use of a Kestrel. The new Kestrel 5700 Ballistics Weather Meter would work for the majority of research, testing, and hunting scenarios. It retails for $399. Kestrel did an outstanding job with this product.

Todd Hodnett and Bryan Litz did a presentation and answered questions. The Kestrel 5700 Ballistics Weather Meter is running Applied Ballistics software.

For more information about Kestrel instruments, click here.

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