Applied Ballistics Second Edition

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Book Review

Applied Ballistics for Long Range Shooting

Second Edition.

By Bryan Litz
578 p.p.

Bryan Litz is a qualified Aerospace Engineer that worked for the US Air Force in the design of Air to Air missiles. After six years he moved on to become the chief Ballistician for Berger Bullets in the U.S.
Bryan is also a keen and very successful long range shooter, with wins in many national and international shooting competitions. Most recently he won an international Queens event right here in Queensland, Australia.

The First edition of "Applied Ballistics for Long Range Shooting", sold out quickly. It is now considered "the book" for recreational long range shooters.

This second edition of "Applied Ballistics" is much bigger and now contains 578 pages of ballistic information, including data on over 236 bullets that have undergone field testing to determine their ballistic properties.

Nowhere else will you find accurately measured ballistic data on such a wide range of commercially available and custom bullets.

With accurately measured B.C. data, shooters are empowered to make more precise trajectory calculations than were possible prior to this publication.

This book is more than just a collection of ballistic numbers. It has very detailed chapters on all aspects of Long Range Shooting in a down to earth language that shooters can understand.

This book is set up into 5 parts,
Part 1 deals with the elements of exterior ballistics, with chapters on,
1, Fundamentals.
2, The Ballistic Coefficient.
3, Gravity Drop.
4, Uphill/Down hill shooting.
5, Wind Deflection.
6, Gyroscopic Effect.
7, The Coriolis Effect.
8, Using Ballistics Programs.
9, Getting Control of Sights
10, Bullet Stability.
11, Extended Long Range Shooting.
Summary of the elements.

Part 2 deals with ballistic performance analysis.
12, Interesting Facts and Trends.
13, Example Performance Analysis.
14, Generalized Score Shooting Analysis.
15, Lethality of Hunting Bullets.
16, Hit Probability for Hunting. (Recommended reading)
Part 3 deals with the properties of Long Range Bullets.
17, Anatomy of a Bullet.
18, Monolithic Bullets.
19, Using the Experimental Data.
Part 4 contains a wealth of Ballistic data on 236 individual bullets that are suitable for long range shooting. One page full of data is dedicated to each individual bullet. These bullets range from .22 calibre up to .338 calibre.

Part 5 Contains an appendix with a stack of equations so that the budding amateur ballistician can see just how some of this data is formulated and derived.

Ballistic Software is supplied with this book. A CD containing the Point Mass Ballistic Solver Version 2.0 is included with the book.

This software is easy to use and will enable the shooter to put some of the ballistic information found in this book to immediate use, without the need to purchase any further ballistic software.

This Second Edition of Bryan's book, contain additional information in almost every chapter. Chapter 5 on Wind Deflection is almost twice as long as in the first edition. Discussing in length the practical considerations of dealing with the effects of wind.

Two new chapters are included in this second edition.

A chapter on Extended Long Range Shooting, discusses the issues of shooting out past the transonic barrier and how to deal with it. Some great explanations on bullet stability are covered that have certainly explained some of the observations that I have made while shooting at Extreme range.

A chapter on Monolithic Projectiles is covered. Now some claims of extraordinary high B.C's have been made about these bullets by the manufacturers. I have shot some of these bullets to very long range and was disappointed in the results. In this chapter, Bryan explains the truth about these bullets. It sure is an interesting read!

Ballistic data is provided from a wide range of bullet manufactures. These include............. Barnes, Berger, Sierra, Nosler, Hornady, Lapua, JLK, Lake City, DTAC, Precision Bullets, Matrix, Cauterucio, Hoover, Norma, Swift, Cutting Edge, Wildcat, Dietlein, Dyer HBC, PMP, DRT, G.S. Custom, and Lehigh.

While not all of the currently available long range bullets have been tested. There are not many that have been missed in this comprehensive study. I am quite sure that it will be quite some time before an update of this book is required.

One of the great things about this book is the technical information that is provided. If your favourite projectile is not included in this book, the book provides technical information and advice, that makes it possible for you to determine a reliable, "approximate" G7 B.C. for similar copper jacketed, lead based, long range bullets.

It is my understanding that the B.C. data contained within this book is the result of ballistic testing out to 1000 yards. As the book lists B.C. data for velocities quite low, it appears as if some educated guessing has taken place for some of the low velocity B.C.'s listed. Care should be taken when using the data for bullets that will be shot at low velocity or where part of the flight path will contain low velocity flight.

Make no mistake about it, this book is loaded with valuable information that is not readily available anywhere else. If you already have the first edition of this book then it is well worth the upgrade to the second edition just for the extra ballistic data. If you do not already own a copy of this book then you should get your order in NOW! Once they are sold out who knows how long you may have to wait to obtain a copy. This book will become a collectors item, don't miss out..