"DOPE" books

[AmbulanceDriver]

any of you deplorables have a recommendation for a dope book?  Looking on amazon people seem mighty proud of theirs, like $30+ for a spiral bound notebook with data pages pre-printed.   

[Fly320s]

any of you deplorables have a recommendation for a dope book?  Looking on amazon people seem mighty proud of theirs, like $30+ for a spiral bound notebook with data pages pre-printed.   

I bought the expensive one years ago, but never use it.  One of the instructors I've been to said to make your own.  I think he had a template online, but I'm not sure.  I'll see if I can find that one.

[bedlamite]

Agree with make your own.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01MQFDNSH

[AmbulanceDriver]

Fly, if you can find that template, that would be fantastic.  It would be nice to be able to customize it a bit for each rifle. 

[K Frame]

When I was working up one of my rifles (back when I had time and interest in that), I kept my information on 3x5 cards that I arranged by range session.

Probably not optimal for everyone, but it worked to keep the information that I needed.

[AmbulanceDriver]

When I was working up one of my rifles (back when I had time and interest in that), I kept my information on 3x5 cards that I arranged by range session.

Probably not optimal for everyone, but it worked to keep the information that I needed.

I've done that in the past, and it worked ok at the time - until I lost the cards.  I have 4 rifles right now I want to build up data on and keep that data safe.  A scoped AR-15 in 5.56, a scoped AR-10 in 6.5 Creedmoor, a scoped Marlin XL-7 in .30-06, and an iron sighted M1 Garand.  Once I collect enough data, I'll be making laminated range cards for each rifle that will be either stored in or on the stock. 

[K Frame]

I had card files that I kept everything in, very similar to these: https://www.amazon.com/STEELMASTER-Drawer-Cabinet-Holds-263F3516DBLA/dp/B00006IFEE/ref=sr_1_18?dchild=1&keywords=3x5+card+file&qid=1600800662&sr=8-18

[Fly320s]

I've done that in the past, and it worked ok at the time - until I lost the cards.  I have 4 rifles right now I want to build up data on and keep that data safe.  A scoped AR-15 in 5.56, a scoped AR-10 in 6.5 Creedmoor, a scoped Marlin XL-7 in .30-06, and an iron sighted M1 Garand.  Once I collect enough data, I'll be making laminated range cards for each rifle that will be either stored in or on the stock. 

Just to clarify, do you want a DOPE book or enough data to make range cards?   DOPE books let you track your shots, weather, gear, everything, but you don't need that much to make range cards.

[AmbulanceDriver]

I'm doing both.  I want to collect enough data to build range cards, then after use the data to validate my range cards.  Plus keep a log of my shooting, data on the rifles, etc....

Right now, I'm a fair shot.  But I want to be able to improve, track trends, log rounds fired, and keep good records because that's the only way to know if I'm consistently improving. Shooting for the sake of shooting is fun, but in order to improve, I gotta have a baseline, and I gotta have data. 

[K Frame]

In this day and age... what about taking a laptop to the range?

[AmbulanceDriver]

In this day and age... what about taking a laptop to the range?

I have a ballistic calculator app - Strelok Pro - on my phone.  And I may eventually digitize the data from the DOPE book.  But I would rather risk loss or damage to a $10 notebook than a $1200 laptop.

[K Frame]

I bought a cheap bang-about laptop from Newegg for like $200 just so that I could have something to A) travel with, and B) that I could take places where it could get banged about and I really didn't much care.

[Fly320s]

I'm doing both.  I want to collect enough data to build range cards, then after use the data to validate my range cards.  Plus keep a log of my shooting, data on the rifles, etc....

OK.  Good.

Just so we are on the same page, I generally think of DOPE books as a way to improve your shooting, especially your first round hits and wind reading, as opposed to using your DOPE to make a range card.  Your DOPE certainly can and should be referenced to correct your range card, but that is usually a correction entered from the reverse direction.

You can easily get the range cards with a chrono and a good ballistic app.  There are a ton of apps out there, and I really like BallisticsARC and Applied Ballistics.  The AP app was damn close to dead-on for my .308 out to 600 yds.

The good news is that the apps and ballistic data are really good these days.  If you are using quality ammo, then the apps should be nearly spot on.  If you have the range, you can back-load the data to correct for your actual rifle.

You can get as OCD as you want with this stuff, because the options are out there.  For the "all in" approach, read the books by Bryan Litz.  https://www.amazon.com/Bryan-Litz/e/B00J216MMI%3Fref=dbs_a_mng_rwt_scns_share

[Hawkmoon]

Have you looked at PointBlank?

http://www.huntingnut.com/index.php?name=PointBlank

Also available as an Android app:

https://apkpure.com/es/pointblank-ballistics/com.huntingnut.com.pointblankballistics