Target Graph

Version 6.1.0 introduces the Target Graph. Actually, the version 4.xx manual used a drawing similar to the Target graph in order to explain the concept of Combined Distance From Center (C.D.F.C.). Another description is the distance the bullet is away from the line of sight. At that time there was considerable interested in using that display, but it was never implemented until now.

When looking at the Target graph assume you are looking through a scope with it's crosshairs perfectly aligned to the target's center, and this forms the line of sight. If there's a cross wind and you fired a tracer bullet, you would see it start out below the line of sight and rise some distance and at the same time drift left or right depending on the direction and strength of the cross wind. If you captured the tracer bullet's path as seen through the scope it would trace out a line that represents where the bullet is relative to the line of sight for each range as it travels to and past the target. You can view or hide this path on the graph by clicking on the check box labeled Plot strike path on target.

The padlock button shown circled in red along the right side locks or unlocks the three traces together so their zeroed range can be changed simultaneously or individually. A side effect of this feature is that just opening the Explore display causes the zeroed ranges of all open traces to change to the value in the trace previously selected in the Explore display. This may not be what you want, so the following dialog pops up allowing you to unlock the traces' zeroed ranges.

Check "Don't show this message again..." if you don't want this dialog opening again during the current session. Note that this dialog never pops up if you don't have the Helpful program hints option checked.

Use the Target Range slider control to set the range to the target. Right click to popup an option to set it to the zeroed range. The bullet's strike area is displayed as a circle with a radius controlled by the Strike area radius arrow buttons. Click the up arrow button to increase the size and the down arrow button to reduce the size. For large changes, right click to open a menu and select the size.

The strike area represents the accuracy of the gun, which is given in MOA. A good quality hunting rifle would typically be able of producing groups sizes with a diameter of 1.0 MOA, which is about 1 inch at 100 yards or 2 inches at 200 yards. To represent that size of group, set the Strike area radius to 0.5 MOA (half the group diameter). If you would rather just see bullet holes, uncheck Show strike area on target. The bullet holes are a constant pixel size and are not representative of the bullet's actual size. Their purpose is to show the bullet's strike location and they need to be large enough to easily see regardless of the target's range.

Target Size

The program automatically selects a target size such that all bullets are on the paper, so to speak, for any set of likely conditions. The radius of the outside ring can be from 5 inches to 25,000 inches. You can also set the Target's size manually using the Target size arrow buttons; up for larger and down for smaller. You can also right click and select a size from the popup menu or select the Auto set target size option.

Windage Adj.

You can simulate changing a scope's windage adjustments using the left and right arrow buttons of the Windage Adj. control. Remember, the scope's crosshairs always remains centered on the target. For a wind from the left click the left arrow button to set windage that moves the bullet's strike area to the left on the target. We have arbitrary given left windage adjustments negative values. In effect, the barrel is being angled to the left and into the wind. For a wind from the right click the right arrow button to set windage that moves the bullet's strike area to the right on the target. We have arbitrary given right windage adjustments positive values. In effect, the barrel is being angled to the right and into the wind. Once again you can right mouse click on the Windage Adj. control and select values from a popup menu.