I'm getting more into long range shooting. I'm looking to pick up a barometer and anemometer.  I am looking at the 2500 which is basically what I'm looking for and noticed the d 5700 sportsman and elite. I'm sure members here use these units and wanted to get some feedback.

1. Is the ballistic calculator worth the additional cost in your opinion. 1a. Is the elite with applied ballistics worth the cost difference from the sportsman.

2. I wanted to be able to have the skill of coming up with my own firing solutions to make first round hits. Once I have developed that skill I'm sure a ballistic calculator is more efficient use of time. If I get the 2500 now will I regret not getting the 5700 later?

3. Does the applied ballistics calculator do anything that another program such as strelok won't do.

Thanks for the responses.

I don't  think it is worth the price. I prefer having the ballistic calculator on my smartphone. I use applied ballistics mobile with a Kestrel 4200 which is basically the same as the 5000.

The 2500 will work for you. It doesn't have humidity or density altitude but those are not necessary. You can get Applied Ballistics mobile for $30 on your phone.

AB mobile or Shooter are the calcs to go with.

Great thank you.

I am very very new at long range work but I was under the assumption that using density altitude helped true your rifle and ballistics table. Shooting at 0vs5k and you have major POI shifts.
School me!

Air density is the most important atmospheric condition when shooting long range.  The atmospherics you need for an accurate trajectory from a ballistics calculator are pressure, temperature, and humidity.

Density altitude is the standard atmosphere model that corresponds to the current air density at your location.  Density altitude is based on temperature, station pressure and humidity.  When those 3 things

are combined it determines the altitude where that air pressure would normally occur. An example would be if the Station pressure was 25.59inHg, Temp 43F, Humidity 93% in the standard atmosphere

that air density would occur at 4336 feet.  So density altitude does help in getting an accurate result from your ballistics calculator.  The reason having a kestrel that doesn't measure humidity or

density altitude doesn't matter is because the kestrel 4200 still gives you the station pressure and the temperature and you can just enter the humidity as 50% in the ballistics calculator and still get accurate results.  

Humidity has very little effect on the bullet and is the least important atmospheric condition.  There are pitfalls to just using density altitude in a ballistics calculator.  That's why some ballistics calculator don't

ask for the density altitude they ask for each individual atmospheric condition.  It's because the speed of sound changes at different air temperatures, and when you just enter the density altitude into the ballistics

calculator it doesn't know the temperature and the temperature is important for the ballistics calculator to use the proper drag coefficient in its calculation.  All this info is from Applied Ballistics for Long Range

Shooting by BryanLitz.  He covers it in better detail and there's tons of useful information in the book I highly recommend reading it.

Chocolate covered it perfectly. DA is nice for range cards being one number to work with.
It has nothing to do with truing anything. 

Looking back through my log books I have experienced  -3100 to +2100 DA at the same sea level range so elevation is not useful  by itself. Elevation decreases pressure but you need air temp and to a lesser extent, humidity  to calculate air density.

Thanks for all your help guys. This is definitely a lot different than what I'm used to(blasting/running and gunning). The science behind it all intrigues me.

Let me jump in and say I just got the applied ballistics for long range shooting book, and it is phenomenal. If you have not read it yet, get it now.

There are three volumes. Do I need all of them or just the last?

Just the last one. I believe the only difference in the 1st-3rd editions are more bullets added in the Ballistic coefficient and Stability section.

All the other books are great too if you happen to be a nerd about the science. 

Unless you think it's necessary, I'll probably just end up with the 3rd edition. I have Amazon credit but is buying straight from the source any better?

No the third should have the same info but with more bullets at the end. I have bought from Amazon and there site. They sometimes had deals on the site, but then there is shipping so Amazon is probably  better.

The other smaller books do testing, which i like because Litz don't fuck around with his testing, he does shit right and if there is a flaw he can't  get around practically he points it out and figures out how much effects his results.