Book Review: Applied Ballistics for Long Range Shooting
By: Bryan Litz
I took a pretty good look at Bryan Litz’s new book on ballistics and found that it is written so that almost any shooter can read this and get so much from what Bryan is presenting to us. Bryan has been able to present the information so that it can be applied by anyone wanting to take the time to improve their understanding of ballistics.
Bryan earned his Aerospace Engineering degree from the Pennsylvania State University in 2002 and then worked for the US Air Force on air to air missile design, modeling and simulation for six years. In November 2008, Bryan became the Chief Ballistician for Berger Bullets. Some of Bryan’s accomplishments have been as a US National Palma Champion in 2008, he was a member of the winning 2008 US Team in the Spirit of America International Rifle Match, and a National Record Holder for the NRA iron sight midrange course, where he fired a 450-39X, among some of his accomplishments.
Bryan goes into many areas of interest, to the long range shooter, such as ballistic coefficients, gravity drop, wind deflection, spin drift, and many other issues for the long range shooter to consider in getting a bullet on target accurately. Once you have a good working understanding of the information presented by Bryan, you will have a better idea of how to calculate precise trajectories for your long range shooting needs.
To summarize the important highlights of Bryan’s book would be for the following areas of Gravity Drop, Having Control of Sights, Wind Deflection, Using an Accurate Ballistic Coefficient, Accounting for Atmospherics, Uphill/Downhill Shooting, Gyroscopic (spin) Drift, and Coriolis Effect.
One other item that is unique to the book is the CD software ballistics program that is included with the book. The program allows you to input information for either the G1 or G7 BC of the bullet and allow you to compute the velocity, trajectory, TOF, and drift for the bullet at the yardage that you need the information for. The book has 536 pages that include dimensional drawings and drag data for over 175 bullets.
Sample of the Ballistic Software that accompanies Litz’s book
I am primarily a 6PPC shooter and I have even learned a lot that I will be able to apply to what I will use out to 300 yards with the bench gun as well as what I shoot with IHMSA handgun silhouette shooting out to 200 yards. I have found this book to not only be an enjoyable read, but a read that is loaded full of very useful shooting information for any shooter that wants to have a better understanding of what happens to the bullet that you are putting down range.
Bob Blaine
Senior Reloading Technician
August 19th, 2010 at 9:29 am
Great Review! I am passing the email leading to it on to my friends in shooting world.
I will probably try to find the book also. Thank You!
I have always been more impressed with a shooter who can put a single shot exactly where he/she wants with some distance, as opposed to most military actions that involve a hail of bullets, many resulting in nothing but “friendly fire” incidents and mayham of the bystanders.
John
August 19th, 2010 at 3:36 pm
I was pleased to see this book review on your August bulletin. I bought a copy late 2009 and it has become a go to reference book with regards to bullet performance and long range effectiveness a given bullet. This book is well written and readily understood by anyone with average intelligence or better. Keep up the good work of exposing worthy books to your customers.