The Kestrel 5700 Elite Weather Meter with Applied Ballistics is a comprehensive weather meter for measurement and logging of primary environmental conditions, including wind speed and direction, temperature, humidity, heat index, pressure, and altitude. It also contains a powerful ballistics calculator to help you hit your long-range shot on the first try. This meter employs the Applied Ballistics bullet library of custom drag models, an exact measurement of your bullet’s drag profile plus corrections for Aerodynamic Jump, Spin Drift, Coriolis, and Drop Scale Factoring to achieve accurate extended long-range shots.

What’s new with the Kestrel Elite Weather Meter with Applied Ballistics over the previous Kestrel 4500 Applied Ballistics series:

Bluetooth LINK to Smartphones / Mobiel / Android / IOS
Takes 1 AA battery (instead of 2 AAA)
Battery door is in the back, sealed away from the motherboard, should your battery leak as was common with all the 4000 series
Improved high resolution screen for any lighting (even sunlight) and easy on your eyes.
Intuitive user-interface screen navigation
Multiple Languages: English, French, German, Spanish
Scratch and breakage-resistant window
All meters include both options of Red (NV – Night Vision) & White backlights.
Slightly bigger, not really noticeable difference. Fits same cases.

Since this meter Kestrel LINK (Bluetooth), you’ll want to download the Kestrel LiNK Ballistics app to your smart phone to load your guns / ammo to the meter. The new Kestrel Meters with Bluetooth include the software necessary to communicate wirelessly at a range of up to 100 feet with a clear line of site (walls or obstacles will effect this range).

Do I need a Dongle or Cable?

There is a free app for both Android and iPhone for the Ballistic Profile Loader. This is what you use to load your Gun/Ammo combinations to the Kestrel. You can NOT load your gun profiles from the Dongle.

The Kestrel 5000 USB cable is an option. This is most common to use with multiple meters. Example being, you need 20 AB meters, and you want to save money by not purchasing the LINK meters. You could get 20 non LINK meters, with just 1 cable and load up all your meters with the Mac/PC version of the Profile Loader. Otherwise, 98% of the Elite meters we sell have LiNK (Bluetooth).

All 5000 series meters will have both a bright green backlight, which is great for even high sunlight conditions, and a night-vision preserving backlight. The red night vision (NV) backlight incorporates optical filter to reduce overall brightness and minimize blue and green spectrum light to preserve night vision. (Note: This ‘night vision’ is not compatible with night-vision equipment.) Basically, with the red backlight, your eyes don’t need to adjust when looking from your meter to the horizon in night time use.

This Kestrel 5500 with Kestrel LINK will work in conjunction with compatible range finders like the Bushnell Elite 1 Mile CONX range finder you’ve been reading about. It will also work with many other apps on the market for ballistics and weather functions. It’s the most popular for ballistic applications due to the compass with crosswind functions.

The Kestrel applied ballistics meter combines sophisticated environmental sensing features with long-range shooting ballistics information in one hand-held device. The built in Applied Ballistics software provides all of the following:

The accurate and trusted ‘Litz’ library of G1 and G7 referenced Ballistic Coefficients (BC’s).
Custom drag curve modeling; helpful in engaging targets beyond the supersonic range of the bullet.
Ballistic Calibration (truing) feature allows you to ‘train’ the solver based on actual bullet impact.
PC Loader software; build firearm profiles on your computer and transfer them via wire or Bluetooth

The Kestrel Shooter’s Weather Meter with Applied Ballistics Technology measures up to 15 environmental parameters and allows users to select from either G1 or G7 ballistic coefficients (BC) when calculating a trajectory at the range. The handy, portable meter also offers the “Litz” measured BC library of well over 200 bullets and growing, which is considered to be the most extensive source of measured data for modern small arms bullets. Users can also train the Kestrel Shooters Weather Meter with Applied Ballistics software to match a specific rifle based on observed impacts at long range with the ballistics calibration feature, which offers even more accurate data points for users to rely on. With easy access to more accurate BC data, shooters have everything they need to make a much more precise trajectory calculation in a compact and durable Kestrel meter design.

The Kestrel Shooter’s Weather Meter with Applied Ballistics allows users to select either G1 or G7 ballistic coefficients, or to be even more specific and select from an entire library of Applied Ballistics Custom Curves for more than 200 common long-range bullets.

Please note that access to the full Applied Ballistics Custom Curve library REQUIRES the Applied Ballistics Profile Loader via the Cable, or loaded from you smartphone with LiNK, free from the App Store or Google Play. For full gun and bullet profile customization and backup, we recommend our customers purchase the unit with Bluetooth wireless data transfer for ease of use and functionality.

Books / DVD

Read up Books or watch the DVD’s by Bryan Litz of Applied Ballistics and the Litz Library. Books include Applied Ballistics: Accuracy and Precision for Long Range Shooting: A Practical Guide for Riflemen, and Applied Ballistics for Long Range Shooting.

Kestrel With Applied Ballistics and LiNK (Bluetooth)

Kestrel 5700 Elite Weather Meter with Applied Ballistics with integrated Bluetooth® technology offer the ultimate in portable and accurate environmental data. Now, both real-time and logged data can be transferred wirelessly and automatically to a MAC/PC, or Smartphone. Yes, even iPhone. It also connects via LiNK to the Bushnell CONX Range Finder where you can view results from the AB Kestrel right on your Range Finder. There will be more rangefinders and scopes down the line that will connect directly with the Kestrel meters.

All updates to the meter will be done through the LiNK by just connecting it to your phone and you will be asked to update your device.

Do I really need the Bluetooth (or USB Cable)?

You can enter all your data manually except for custom curves. There are several custom curves preloaded, but if you want a different one, you have to download it from your phone.

You can load up to 30 guns, one bullet each. In the case where you have multiple ammo types for a given rifle, you have to enter a whole new gun for each ammo type.

What’s the difference between the Applied Ballistics and the Horus version?

The main differences between the two models is The Applied Ballistics model has a different truing application with drop scale factor, it has bullet length as a standard gun input (used to calculate spin drift) offers +- angle input and has the ability to use G1,G7 and custom drag profiles. The unit comes Pre loaded with 7 custom curves, and the Gun loader will have over 100 custom drag profiles to use.

What’s the difference between the Elite version and the 5700 basic version?

Check out the table at the bottom of this page for all features and differences.

How do I use the Kestrel 5700 Elite Applied Ballistic meter?

Please see this simple manual explaining how it works.

Applied Ballistics:

Custom Drag Curves
G1 and G7 support
Better PC application for ease of building library
Crosswind Jump: truing in winds without it can give you an errant MV
If you calibrate in one environment and move to a drastically different environment, the device will adjust automatically
Able to export the windage, elevation, wind speed via BT to an external device

Horus:

Can build custom drag curves, but user needs to do it on their own
G1 support only
Widely used in militaries world wide
Many people are trained on it and used to the way the system operates

Kestrel Elite Weather Meter with Applied Ballistics Features

Employs the Applied Ballistics bullet library of custom drag models, an exact measurement of your bullet’s drag profile plus corrections for Aerodynamic Jump, Spin Drift, Coriolis, and Drop Scale Factoring to achieve accurate extended long-range shots.
Expanded features include a customizable Range Card and an expanded Ballistics Data Table as well as storage for up to 16 gun and bullet profiles and 5 saved targets.
Calculate accurate fire control solutions for long-range rifle shooting.
Select either G1 or G7 ballistic coefficient when calculating a trajectory.
Get ballistic coefficient data for more than 225 long-range bullets.
The AB Kestrel comes with numerous pre-loaded drag models but not entire gun/ammo profiles. In other words, you have to build your gun profile, but you can choose from the list of bullets when modeling your ammo.
Measure up to 15 environmental parameters at your fingertips.
“Train” the software to match your specific rifle based on observed impacts at long range
Calculates and adjusts for gyroscopic spin drift and Coriolis effect
Adjust for angle
Wind speed/air velocity
Temperature
Wind chill
Relative humidity
Heat stress index
Dewpoint temp
Wet bulb temp
Barometric pressure
Altitude
Density altitude
Wind direction
Crosswind
Headwind/Tailwind
Pressure trend

Models & SKUs:

Kestrel 5700 Elite Meter with Applied Ballistics and LiNK (Black): 0857ALBLK
Kestrel 5700 Elite Meter with Applied Ballistics and LiNK (Olive): 0857ALOLV
Kestrel 5700 Elite Meter with Applied Ballistics and LiNK (Tan): 0857ALTAN
Kestrel 5700 Elite Meter with Applied Ballistics and LiNK (Blaze Orange): 0857ALBLZ
Kestrel 5700 Elite Meter with Applied Ballistics and LiNK (Flat Dark Earth): 0857ALFDE

*We ship every Kestrel 5000 Series Meter exclusively with Made in the USA Energizer® Brand Ultimate Lithium AA batteries for improved reliability, capacity, cold-weather performance, and weight. We strongly recommend that you use only Energizer Ultimate Lithium batteries in your Kestrel Meter. If you choose to install alkaline batteries, we recommend that you do NOT store your Kestrel with these batteries installed and that you check your batteries for leakage and corrosion a minimum of every 30 days. Damage due to leaking alkaline batteries is not covered under warranty.