Ballistic Whiz wheel versus FDAC or FFS DA table..

[one shot ST]

A friend of mine has give the balistic whiz wheel to me...... I've take a look to this analogic calculator..... nothing to say about the final value in terms of elevation and windage....

a lot to say about how you have to use it... to many hands operations, you have to find the DA with the first wheel, you have to use this value with another wheel to find elevation correction for the nominal muzzle velocity of your load, just in case you have to correct for different MV value +/- 50 fps

but to do this you have to choose between 4 windows, short range, medium range, long range low DA, long range high DA.....

with the same difficulty to operate the wheels.....

you have to correct the elevation value for shot angle....but in the wheel I have the elevation is in MOA and the correction for shoot angle is in MIL.....so one more calculation and several interpolations between values.....

same thing for spin drift, movers ecc ecc.........

absolutely no user friendly.... may be good for some people, very bad for other......

I prefer the easy mode of the FDAC or a ballistic back up table usng FFS......

not for me.....

 

[NOMAD]

Re: Ballistic Whiz wheel versus FDAC or FFS DA table..

I can concur on all the above!

 

[jasonk]

Re: Ballistic Whiz wheel versus FDAC or FFS DA table..

I've never used the Whiz Wheel, so I can't offer a great opinion on that one except that the pictures I've seen make it look a little confusing and fragile compared to the FDAC.

I'm a tech guy, I love the Iphone options and have the Kestrel/Atrag too, but having the FDAC in my pack as a backup sure is comforting when the Kestrel says 5% battery remaining and I've got a few more hours of shooting to do!

 

[sosicmcise]

Re: Ballistic Whiz wheel versus FDAC or FFS DA table..

Great feedback. We designed the FDAC to be easily used and understood by shooters of all experience and ability levels. Our intent was to provide an extremely accurate tool that can be used in the event that a battery powered device fails, or as a stand alone tool for calculating a firing solution. Note that our product also provides all of the dope you would need from your closest to your most distant target in one window. This allows a sniper team to quickly and efficiently find the ranges to several target reference points, calculate solutions to them, and start engaging multiple targets at multiple distances very quickly.

Simple and efficient tools always win the day in the Infantry.

 

[one shot ST]

Re: Ballistic Whiz wheel versus FDAC or FFS DA table..

Me too..... tech and gadget guy.. but the FDAC is the best back up tool for field use.....

how I've wrote in other topic now is t possible to customize your own table also with FFS, but the concept is driven by FDAC rules....

in Italy we say " a prova di stupido " please.... translate... ;-)

 

[sosicmcise]

Re: Ballistic Whiz wheel versus FDAC or FFS DA table..

Come see the FDAC at the 2011 AAC Silencer Shoot in Memphis. You'll find it, and Me at the US Tactical Supply booth. Hopefully we'll have the ability to shoot with the FDAC through a suppressed 20" Ashbury International .308 with M118LR.

Here is a link to the event, should be an awesome time.

AAC Silencer Shoot 2011

 

[BryanLitz]

Re: Ballistic Whiz wheel versus FDAC or FFS DA table..

davide,

Thanks for sharing your thoughts on the whiz wheel. There is clearly a spectrum of different tools available from the most simple to the most complex. Naturally, the simpler a tools are easier to use, and typically suffer some resolution compared to the more sophisticated tools. Think of a ruler vs a micrometer. The whiz wheel has the ability to provide output to the single click at all ranges, whereas the FDAC does not. But to get output that precise from an analog device, its more like operating a micrometer than a ruler. Granted there are situations where the simplicity of the FDAC would still be favored due to personal preference or the nature of the mission.

With all the above said, there is no issue with a preference for the simpler tool, but you did touch on some things in your post which imply you do not completely understand the operation of the whiz wheel. For example, there is no need to convert from MILS to MOA or vise versa on a given wheel. A wheel is either MOA or MILS, and is totally self consistent with drop, wind, movers, and spin drift outputs. The angle correction table is valid for both MOA and MILS since it's just scaling.

There's no doubt the whiz wheel does take more effort to learn and use compared to the FDAC. However, due to the extra complexity, the tool is able to provide a higher resolution (to the 'click') solution, and a more complete (movers, spin drift, angle shooting, +/- 50 fps MV variations, wind components, etc) solution as well.

I'm not trying to change your assessment or anyone's opinion, just trying to explain the proper operation of the device and show that although more complicated than the FDAC, it's not as complicated as your original post suggested. Also the complexity actually provides a more complete and higher resolution output.

We're all very familiar with the trade-off between various tools on the resolution vs simplicity scale. I think most shooters will be able to properly assess both the FDAC and the whiz wheel on this scale and make the choice that's right for them.

Take care,
-Bryan

 

[Graham]

Re: Ballistic Whiz wheel versus FDAC or FFS DA table..

I carry an FDAC for backup in my HSRC.

I'm thinking that the wheel was probably designed to serve a different purpose for a different type of shooter: It works OK for me, with the instructions, on the shooting bench, at the range.

There's nothing fundamentally wrong with the wheel, but the main problem with it for me is that it has writing so small that I can't read it in the field without my glasses on.

 

[one shot ST]

Re: Ballistic Whiz wheel versus FDAC or FFS DA table..

Hello Bryan,

nothing to say about the final solution you can get.
May be I haven't understood well how the wheel works but..... the elevation values written in the inside wheel are in MOA the external table is in MIL..... so if I found 30 MOA inside I've to convert 30 MOA in MIL to use the external table for angle shoot...... may be the model I've was assembled in the wrong manner using a MOA wheel with an external table in MIL.... this is what I've, I'll ask to a friend of mine if he has more wheels, to be honest I haven't open the whiz wheel...

in the external table the range is from 1 to 20 MIL, there is also a MOA table ? I think there is no space available for a complete MOA range....... I apologize if I write something wrong.....

finally if difficult to operate the wheels, due friction between them....

I'm an airline Captain and I've used the Jeppesen ruler, very similar to the this wheel...so I'm confident with this system.

If I've to use a back up table in the field I prefer an easy table...like the FDAC or my custom table using FFS, if I've time or I want play with gadget I'll used my NOMAD with FFS, or my CF 19 with other software.... also your or JBM.... just to compare out put data.

 

[BryanLitz]

Re: Ballistic Whiz wheel versus FDAC or FFS DA table..

Davide,

The 'inclination angle correction' table on the back works with both MILS and MOA. For example, if you have 9 MOA of drop, and the angle is 25 degrees, your corrected dope is 8 MOA. Likewise if you have 9 MILS of drop and the angle is 25 degrees, your corrected dope is 8 MILS.

Granted the table rounds to the closest 0.1 which suggests MILS, but when using MOA you just round to the closest .25 or whatever the click value is. Also, the table maxes at 20 which is plenty for MILS, but I admit could be limiting for MOA.

Good shooting,
-Bryan