Program Manual

softwareMain Screen


You type in your data, click on the "Calculate" button and you get a text table, or a graph.
The "Advanced" button allows you to work with different climates and multiple BC values. Or not to.
"Compare" on the options menu lets you look at two sets of data on one graph, to compare loads.

What does it all mean?
Cartridge: Any name you like, doesn't matter
Bullet Weight: In grains. From the ammo box.
Muzzle Velocity: Feet per second. From the Ammo box.
Max range: Maximum range you want to shoot at in yards or meters. The maximum displayed range.
Zero Range: The range you zeroed in at in yards or meters. The shortest range at which you wish the bullet to cross the line of sight.
Range Increment: the distance steps used in displaying the graph or table, in yards or meters.
XWind Speed: Crosswind speed in mph.
XWind Angle: 90 degrees for right or left.
BC: Ballistics Coefficient. From the ammo box.
Compare: The graph can compare two loads, you can turn this off in the Tools menu.
Yards/Meters: This only affects range distances, everything else is inches and feet per second. Good for metric firing ranges and sights with 100m increments.
The Table and graph are freshly recalculated every time you select them.

  • Advanced
    Advanced Settings
    Altitude: How high up you are in feet.
    Temperature: Fahrenheit

    Multiple BC values for different velocities:
    Sierra gives this BC data for a .224 dia. 45 gr. SPT bullet:
    .210 @ 3000 fps and above
    .196 between 3000 and 1800 fps
    .181 @ 1800 fps and below

    The lowest velocity is the Lowest Velocity
    The second lowest velocity is the Lower Velocity
    The lowest BC is the Lowest BC
    The second lowest BC is the Lower BC
    The highest BC value is plain BC
    This is what it looks like: (note that the velocity is between 3000 fps and 1800 fps out to 250 yards, so you could just take the .196 for the BC value and put in zeroes for the advanced values, or turn Advanced off. That would be fine if you only shoot out to 250 yards.). Turning "Advanced" off hides ignores the last two BC values.

    Ballistic shooting software freeware free reloading

softwareTools Menu

  • Options
    • Point of Aim Adjustment: You can have you sight adjustments in 1/4 MOA scope clicks or Mils.
    • Graph: 2D graph or 3D graph.
    • Register: Lets you click on a saved file to open the program. It adds 2 lines to the Windows Registry.
    • Text Separator: For normal use, stick to the "Space ". "Comma" lets you have the table with commas in it, so you can copy the file into a text editor, save it and import it into a spreadsheet or database program.
    • Angle Calculation: The Cosine Angle method the the "Rifleman's Method", the Cosine Drop method is the "Improved Rifleman's method". The Improved method is better, as the name suggests.

  • Compare
    Compare allows you to pick another file to compare to the one you are currently looking at. It makes no difference to the text table, but it adds a second line on the graph. The sight height, zero range, maximum range, range increment are taken from the original file, so you compare like with like.
  • Point Blank Range
    If you are shooting at a 6" target, you can adjust your zero so that the trajectory peaks at 3". The distance at which the trajectory drops 3" is the "Point Blank Range". So the trajectory is plus or minus 3" out to that range. Some people will tell you that you can now fire out to the Point Blank Range, and hit the target every time. They are wrong:
    How Maximum Point Blank Range (MPBR) misses the target.
    So this program reduces the size of the 6" target by your group size at that range. So all your group spread will be on target. This is your "Real-World" range at which you don't have to adjust for range.
    You enter your group size for 100 yards or meters, the program doubles your group size at double the range. Which is on the optimistic side, but even so your real-world Point Blank Range gets a fair bit shorter.
    If you set your group size to zero, you get the same result as the other ballistics programs, but you do realize that it doesn't have any meaning in the real world.
  • Chronograph Velocity Adjustment
    If your chronograph is 10 feet in front of the muzzle, the velocity you measure will be a little lower than the muzzle velocity. So this calculates the muzzle velocity from the 10 foot reading. Or whatever distance you were measuring the velocity at.
    Just to confuse you, the rocket blast from the muzzle speeds up the bullet after it leaves the barrel for a short distance, then the bullet slows down again. The program calculates a muzzle velocity which will give you the correct result with ballistic software.

softwareFile Menu


You can Save your work at any time and Open it again, your options get saved too.
Print prints the text table or the graph.
Free Ballistic Simulator Software updated Sunday August 01 2010 at 11:43am. Email Frank Clarke About Frank Clarke