3x5 Data Book

[rybe390]

Hey folks.

Long story short, I've posted a few times with updates to a project I've been working on...and I keep finding ways to make it a bit better.

I've been building a 3x5 data book to keep for each rifle, with the hope of having reference information(not specific to any gun), data validation, hard data backups, and shooting tools at your disposal in a small, compact package that's easy to take everywhere, and also easy to use. Main goals of the compact data book are reference info of many types, data backup, and finally, a trajectory validation tool. These are inspired by the magpul series of compact cards, but I wanted a different spread of information, and to consolidate some of the reference material. I found myself going to the range with just a notebook, and found it to be difficult to manage all the information from a range day.

To accompany the data book, you'll want hard copy 3x5 cards with your data on it for pre determined DA values. Toss that card in the front of a wrist coach, and toss 2 of the reference cards in the other wrist coach pockets, and you have a lot of usable info at your fingertips. You can start a day with no information on a rifle, and leave with valid trajectory information. Copy that info at multiple atmospheric conditions onto DA cards, and you have hard data that's good to go.

For me, I use the data book for reference. The wrist coach has a drop chart in the front, the wind rose/sin/cosine/ranging formulas ref card on the back, and the mil range chart inside. Anything else will be in the pack. Additional DA cards for the coach also ride in the pack, so the DA chart doesn't live in the wrist coach...if you're checking DA, you need a new card anyways.

Data Book Contents:
General Reference Info: Wind Rose, conversion values, sine/cosine values for angled fire, generic TOF info, MOA to Mil Chart, mirage info
Mil Ranging Card, pre built
DA Reference Card
Shooters Checklist/Other Considerations/Reference Info
Gun Backup Info: MV, Height Over Bore, Trued BC, Bullet info, etc
Load Shift/Suppressor Shift Backup Info
Data Confirmation/Truing Cards
Mover Calculator based in Mils/Second: Generic 6.5 Creedmoor info, tool to change attached
Mover Mil/Second to MPH
Blank Range Cards for DA. Print another page if you want more.

I've also built a few data management/data consolidation tools, which let you input data whether it's raw data you're hard coding in, or pulling from the JBM multi DA output tool. They then spit out a condensed range card, and 3x5 cards for wrist coaches that are filled automatically from the data you 've input. These are similar to the @Jack Master charts, but are focused exclusively on the 3x5 output, as well as being compatible with the JBM multiple DA output, so you don't have to hard code data in.

PDF File attached. Link to the shared google drive containing this PDF, as well as the mentioned excel chart building tools, also below.

Feel free to provide comments or feedback. Just sharing with you all what I find useful, and have wanted to have on hand when I'm at the range.

Data book share - Google Drive

drive.google.com

 

[alwaywatchyoursix]

Not trying to nitpick, but I was scrutinizing the first card in the databook mainly because there's a lot of terms that I'm not familiar with as a relative noob in this sport, and I noticed a small math error.

For calculating hold for movers, you've got:

10mil/s x 1.2s TOF = 10.2 mil

It should be 12 mil.

Anyways, I think it's pretty cool that you put this together.

 

[rybe390]

Not trying to nitpick, but I was scrutinizing the first card in the databook mainly because there's a lot of terms that I'm not familiar with as a relative noob in this sport, and I noticed a small math error.

For calculating hold for movers, you've got:

10mil/s x 1.2s TOF = 10.2 mil

It should be 12 mil.

Anyways, I think it's pretty cool that you put this together.

You're totally right there. Heck. At the end of the day that one's just an example.

There's a lot of info on there, but once you're familiar with the concepts of the info on the cards, it's a solid reference to have. But the DA chart, the rifle backup info cards, trajectory validation cards, and blank range cards can/should be used by day 1 shooters to make meaningful time at the range happen and keep data organized and easy to access, rather than pulling out the computer every shot.

The other cards are reference tools so you aren't doing math in the field or relying on the calculator to give you a solution.

 

[alwaywatchyoursix]

I'm definitely going to give it a try on my next trip to the range. Just put together a new rifle with an optic I've never used before too, and I figure this has got to be a better solution than me trying to write stuff down randomly in a notebook and then later wondering about the stuff I forgot to write down.

 

[seafury]

Neat idea. What are you using to keep all the cards together?

 

[rybe390]

@alwaywatchyoursix I added some instructions for each page, hopefully it's a little more clear for new shooters on how to use some of these pages. Like I mentioned, some of these are not needed, but the checklists, mil range card, DA card, backup info, trajectory validation, and blank range cards will make range time a lot more meaningful for you. I also fixed the little typo you found. On my armboard, I only run the 3x5 data card on the front, then inside I have the general reference page and milling range card.

@seafury thanks! Hopefully you can try them out and let me know if they suck or not. I'm using either binder rings, binder clips, or flight checklist rings, depending on if I've laminated them or not. You can take a look at how I have it organized below

 

[rybe390]

Double posting....rebuilt the first page to make it less jumbled, added a cover page. Enjoy folks!

 

[Nik H]

Double posting....rebuilt the first page to make it less jumbled, added a cover page. Enjoy folks!

This is great...thanks for putting this together for us

 

[rybe390]

This is great...thanks for putting this together for us

Happy to! Built it for myself but figured there might be other guys who were looking for something similar. Just was wanting to make better use of range time and take better, more clear notes.

 

[danatkins]

Anyway we could delete the info off the generic one you did for 6.5 to tailor one to our rifle

 

[rybe390]

Anyway we could delete the info off the generic one you did for 6.5 to tailor one to our rifle

If you have illustrator or an Adobe PDF editor, it'd be easy to pull that out, use the excel file I built(shared in the Google drive) for movers, and toss it back in as a screen shot.

I could also build out a generic mover chart for say a 5.56, 6.5 creedmoor, .308, and some fast 6mm if you think that'd be useful for people. Tof is actually pretty consistent among loads. I just compared my 6.5, and my 5.56, and they're literally within .1 mil even at 1,000 yards. 5.56 starts at 2850 and the 6.5 starts at 2625. Only real variance would be a 2900-3000fps gun like a magnum or 6mm variant.