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Kestrel 4500NV Pocket Weather Meter Product Review

Long Range Shooters, Weekend Enthusiasts and Perfectionists have long known that understanding your crosswinds and being able to use those numbers would help you shoot better groups.  I know for an example that my 300 Win Mag shooting Federal Premium ammunition tipped with the Barnes Triple shock X shooting 1.6 inches high at 100 would drop in perfectly at 200 yards, be 6.8 inches low at 300 yards, be 20 inches low at 400 yards and and be 40.4 inches low at 500 yards.  Now I have not shot an animal at 500 yards but I still love to shoot out to these ranges because when I do shoot regularly out to 200 yards, I have the confidence to know that I routinely blow up milk jugs at 500 yards.

Shooting out to those distances I would on occasion miss (Dont we all) the jug to the right or to the left and it would drive me batty.  Being a bit of a perfectionist myself, I knew that there was a bit of crosswind but I could never figure out how strong it was and how much of a difference it was making.  Knowing that my bullet had per 10mph of wind a drift of .7 inches at 10 yards, 2.8 inches at 200 yards, 6.3 inches at 300 yards, 11.8 inches at 400 yards and 19.2 inches at 500 yards.  Having the ability to know what the crosswinds are helps to know how far left of the milk jug or how far right I would be and allows me the ability to either adjust the windage on the scope or use Kentucky windage and just hold to the left or right of the jug.

Knowing this crosswind exactly can help you to make perfect adjustments to your scope and as a perfectionist, I want to know exactly where my bullet is going to place.  Perfectionists, long range shooters and snipers have long known that the Kestrel Meters have long been one of the standards in checking Wind Speed and now with the 4500NV Nielsen Kellerman has absolutely knocked the ball out of the park. 

The Kestrel 4500NV comes with a Digital Compass, Wind Direction, Crosswind, Headwind/Tailwind, Current Wind Speed, Max Wind Gust, Average Wind Speed, Temperature, Wind Chill, Relative Humidity, Heat Stress Index, Dewpoint Temperature, Wet Bulb Temperature, Barometric Pressure, Altitude and Density Altitude.  Crosswind, Current Wind Speed and Wind Direction are the most important features to the shooter and hunter.

Now are all of these things important to the hunter and shooter?  Not really but they certainly do not hurt and some of them are absolutely cool to play around with. We have known for a  long time that animals react differently to incoming storms and all incoming storms cause increases or decreases in barometric pressure.  Being able to read the rise and fall of the pressure from your treestand and being able to track that on all of your hunts can help you to put together a pretty awesome log of your hunts. 

Now does every hunter need to have one of these...Probably not, but if you really take your shooting seriously, if you want to shoot out to 500 or 1000 yards consistently, if you are interested in how weather effects your hunting and your shooting then you are going to want a Kestrel 4500NV and you are going to want take the time to learn how this tool can really help you in the outdoors to become a better shooter and a better hunter.  This is one of the tools that is going to be in my pocket throughout the season and I am looking forward to having that information at my finger tips.

I have yet to figure out how much drift my arrows get in a 10mph crosswind or even a 5 or 15 mile crosswind but you can bet with this new tool in my hands, I am going to have some fun trying to find out.

If your interested in learning more about the Kestrel wind meters go check out the following links and don't hesitate to ask questions of their experts, they are great at customer service and they really care about each and every one of their customers.

Purchase your Kestrel Here

Nielson Kellerman

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