I'm going to buy a Kestrel 5700 Elite and I need to decide if I buy it with or without link. I've heard some complaints about the link feature not being very reliable. What have your experiences been? Reliable? Useful? Thanks for any feedback.
For me - in my personal experience, selling, setup up and using the Kestrel Range... Bluetooth works 90% or the time, most of the time. I have had it not work enough times, that I would rely on it for anything critical. That and the phone screen timeouts, etc, are a bit of a pain.
However, it's actually more to do with your workflow and how you think and would like to use it.
I primarily shoot field steel in NZ - this would be similar to what you guys know at the PRS etc, but time limits aren't quite as short, yet. However, multiple targets, different distances, positions etc.
Initially, I bought into the hype/workflow marketing etc and hade the Kestrel up on Wind Vane with a link to the phone. I spend more time gawking and playing with my phone than I did shooting. You do not want to be watching a live update on the phone while shooting.
Now, prior to touching the rifle. I spend a minute assessing the wind, ranging targets and form a plan that I write onto a piece of paper. This includes elevation for target a min/average/max wind. When I shoot, I don't have time to wait for a suitable condition to pull the trigger in, nor do I want to be focusing on anything other than the target.
The vane system, to me, would be awesome for F-Class style shooting, ELR and so on - where you have time to decide when to brake the shot, not have to work with the amount of time you have.
However, it's actually more to do with your workflow and how you think and would like to use it.
I primarily shoot field steel in NZ - this would be similar to what you guys know at the PRS etc, but time limits aren't quite as short, yet. However, multiple targets, different distances, positions etc.
Initially, I bought into the hype/workflow marketing etc and hade the Kestrel up on Wind Vane with a link to the phone. I spend more time gawking and playing with my phone than I did shooting. You do not want to be watching a live update on the phone while shooting.
Now, prior to touching the rifle. I spend a minute assessing the wind, ranging targets and form a plan that I write onto a piece of paper. This includes elevation for target a min/average/max wind. When I shoot, I don't have time to wait for a suitable condition to pull the trigger in, nor do I want to be focusing on anything other than the target.
The vane system, to me, would be awesome for F-Class style shooting, ELR and so on - where you have time to decide when to brake the shot, not have to work with the amount of time you have.
LiNK is essential for optimal use. Use it on your phone app or not when shooting, but when setting up a new Gun Profile and updating the firmware (they went from 1.15 to 1.17 then 1.18 and headed to 1.19 maybe 1.20 all in a few weeks) you will need to buy a usb cable or dongle for your computer from Kestrel to accomplish the same thing the LiNK does out of the box with the free phone app from Applied Ballistics. Also there is a new model at $399 that may meet your needs. Here it is https://kestrelmeters.com/pages/kestrel-meters-ballistics-compare-chart-1
Ah yes - for maintenance purposes the Bluetooth is awesome - I create all my profiles on the phone, bump them over then turn off the Bluetooth (battery use). This means all my profiles are on the phone, as well as the Kestrel - the last software update cleared the Kestrel of its profiles - but I just needed to push a couple of buttons and they were all back on there!
As a Non-Link user, I can say I made a mistake. I should have gotten Link. It works without it but things like upgrading FW versions are so much harder than they need to be. If you don't like to duct tape things together, get Link.
