SharpShootingUK Spring 2025 Blog

Well, 2025 has all been about the new Calypso Mini AB ultrasonic wind meter and the newly sorted Applied Ballistics Quantum app.

Historically cheap apps have had perfect results when used properly (this keeps me very busy on my ballistics training days!) but only to the end of a G7 drag model’s data, namely 1500fps remaining speed. For transonic and subsonic shooting, one needed Applied Ballistics hardware, which includes drag that covers the whole speed range, namely a Kestrel or Garmin AB device, which is much more expensive. With these MILSPEC devices, one gains hardening, battery life, and general toughness but loses a phone app’s large and clear touchscreen display.

With the new Quantum app, you get transonic drag (CDMs) and some other very advanced features, on par with a Kestrel and Garmin, but for £20. So I’ve been busy teaching clients how to use this excellent new app, which, in addition to its full feature set, is easy to use and navigate. It also has some new features like cloud syncing, profile sharing, etc. It also integrates very well with this clever new AB ecosystem-compatible wind meter from Calypso. Essentially, the mind meter is pointed to the target and then provides perfectly accurate relative wind direction and wind speed 1 and 2. In AB devices, this is auto-updated in the device after certain intervals, depending on the device. Some are about instant, and some are up to 5 minutes. Some devices allow ad-hoc polling of the meter, also. I’ve just done a video on this subject on my YouTube channel, if you fancy more detail. As ever, there are some technical idiosyncrasies you have to navigate around. Modern long-range ballistics is a technological, data-driven endeavour and creating efficient workflows to best use your instruments and your time and attention are key to getting the job done fast and smooth and stress-free.

We have also all fallen for the NightForce prism when we eventually run out of elevation. You can add 20 or 30 moa to your rail, 20 or 30 to your mount, but sooner or later, you still run out of lob. Sure, most rifles will get to a mile this way, but sooner or later, we all run out. So now you’re into mount-tilting mounts such as Ivey, Era-Tac, etc, but these have a big disadvantage. You are tilting the scope down more and more, and eventually it hits the barrel. Your eye-line is now awful, too, as the back of the scope gets higher and higher. I long suspected that we’d end up using prisms instead. So the NF prism duly came along, available in 50 and 100 MOA. One simply whacks it in front of the scope, and it gives you 50 or 100 MOA elevation. They’re magic because they just work, not perfectly aligned? Which Picatinny slot do I use? What about windage error? No, just put it anywhere in front of the scope and it works perfectly every time. Want to lend it to your friend? Sure, clip it on and away he/she goes! I love them.

I’ve also taken a few of my ELR clients out past our previous past of 3036y to a new 3232y target, where we got impacts and managed 0.4MIL (just over a MOA) vertical dispersion, which we will try to better when we have a less vile tailwind, and have created a new 3520y (2miles) I will be trying next week, with my best String ELR of the Year 2024 award winner, Henry, with his 37XC.

As always here, I’ve taken a lot of “normal” clients out to the half MAO at 1209 target with their Creedmoors, trued a lot of ballistics, reverse-engineered a lot of different winds and had fun with Enfields, rimmies and such.

I am also retesting the new little Labradar LX radar. This, with the latest firmware, now supports G7 reverse-engineering, down-range energy, is more sensitive, faster and all in all a much more competitive device. It’s a shade more money than the Garmin, but it does more. I like it more and more. We are indeed spoilt for choice these days.

Loads of clients have ticked off the Mile, which is now doable easily with a good Creedmoor. And folks with magnums can just keep on truckin’ past the mile.

Scope-wise, I’ve just uploaded to YouTube my 2024 dialling scope roundup from £500 to £4500. Every year, the order changes and the scopes get better, mostly from the bottom up. Indeed, Optics Warehouse, ever interested in what’s hot and what’s not, sent me the new £650 Arken EP5 7-35, which is somehow even better than the 5-25, which itself was so shockingly good that the whole scope industry reverberated. This shockwave forces manufacturers to do better, cheaper.

WULF, OPW’s brand, then created the Defender 2 at sub £500! Which is a great little scope - I can attest to the thought and effort they put into the design. I spent hours with OPW just discussing the finer points of reticle design. I used a Defender 2 on an ELR rimfire, ending up at 414y and it embarrassed an old NightForce NXS 8-32 my client was using. The simple fact is, these days, if you choose correctly, several sub £700 scopes chew and spit out some of the old £2000 Alpha scopes. Features, certainly, glass too. Amazing stuff.

The weather on the Moor, as you can see from the photos, although it has broken now, was relentlessly perfect for months! Good times.

And when at home, the shooting doesn’t stop. Here’s my lad Stan chilling in the hammock, but still keeping an eye out for branchers, and showing how trigger discipline starts young.

As ever, all the mentioned kit is available to demo at SharpShootingUK and available to buy from Optics Warehouse.

Thank you so much to Richard for writing this fantastic blog. If you're interested in getting into long-range shooting, head over to his website, SharpShootingUK! He's the best in the business!