Simulator Controls

The Simulator Controls define the shooting scenario, the things you can't control as you look thru the sights.
It uses the load settings from the Input Tab, but the Simulator session overrides some settings.
The simulator settings get saved seperately from the load settings, so you can use the same load in different scenarios.

softwareGroup Size


This is vital. What size is the Worst 10-shot group you can shoot at 100 yards? From a sandbag, and also from offhand. This, more than anything else, determines your effective range.
If you shoot pistol out to 25 yards, multiply your 25 yard group by four to get a fake 100 Yard group.

The assumption is that a 3" group at 100 yards is a 6" group at 200 yards. This is obviously a little optimistic.

software

Flyer Probability


Unless an Alien in a Black Helicopter fired the shot from the Grassy Knoll, that embarrassing high and left shot is part of your group. A man has to know his limitations.
A 90% flyer probability means that in a 3" group, 90% of the shots will be inside the 3" circle. So half your 5 inch groups will be less than 3 inches, half will have a "Flyer" outside the 3 inch group. The "Flyer" not a mistake, it is just statistical spread.
95% means that one shot in 20 will be outside the group, 99% is one shot in a hundred.
When you fire a shot in the simulator, the computer applies a statistical effect called "The Normal Distribution" to scatter your shots realistically.
More than you want to know:
In statistics, there is a thing called the Normal Distribution. This means that if a large number of random things push your point of aim in random directions, you can work out how far away from average your results are likely to be. If 68% of your shots are within 1 inch of the target center, 90% will be within 1.645 inches, 95% within 1.96 inches, 99% within 2.55 inches. You may have heard of Standard Deviation. In this case, one inch is one standard deviation.
If something is affecting your groups which isn't random, such as flinching, the Normal Distribution doesn't apply.
The Simulator's ballistic model applies the Normal Distribution to your shots, depending on your group size and "Flyer Probability" (Standard Deviation in disguise). So you will get some nice groups, and some pesky "Flyers". The flyers are not mistakes, they are events with a low probability. Call your fliers "events of low probability" if you like, but accept them.
software

Sights

There are some scope reticles and iron sight pictures draw by the computer.

The Red Dot is 3 MOA, 3 inches across at 95.5 yards. This assumes a zoom of 1, which is usually the case for red dots.

The "MOA reticle" shows Minuites of Angle. 10 MOA is 10 inches at 95.5 yards, so you can use it to scale targets. 10 MOA is equal to 40 1/4 MOA scope clicks.
If a target is 10 inches across, and the range is 95.5 yards, the target will go from 0 to 10 mils on the MOA reticle, for example. This assumes a zoom of 1.

The "Mildot" reticle has dots at 1 Mil intervals. A Mil is the angle covered by 1 unit at 1000 units. 36 inches at 1000 yards, 1 meter at 1000 meters. This assumes a zoom of 1. It is great for rangefinding in meters, awkward for yards and inches. The "Mil-Inch" system allows you you use yards without math.
A 36" square target at 100 yards in the center of the crosshairs will touch the points where the thin lines meet the thick lines, 10 Mils square at a zoom of 1.

Target transparency works on the same principle.

software

Scoring


You have 3 color-coded scoring zones on your targets. The red areas on the target represent hits, blue areas are forbidden. Anything else is a miss. Red hits, Blue Hits and Misses get a points score which you can define.
So maybe +1 for red, -2 for blue and zero for miss. Or any system you like.

Draw your own targets:
Red is (R:255, G: 0, B: 0), Blue is (R: 0, G:: 0, B: 255), you may have to click on the palette at the bottom of MS Paint and define a "Custom Color". If your own targets don't work, it's because the reds aren't pure red, blues not pure blue. Fiddle with the "Palette" menu on your graphics program.

softwareBackground graphic


Easy enough. It can be a .bmp, .gif or .jpg. So you can use most images from the internet or from digital cameras. The images is stretched to fit a square screen, so crop the image square if you don't want it distorted. You can photograph your own backyard, or go for a hike and photograph nature. Or find nice pictures on travel websites, scan the National Geographic. Whatever you like.
The backgrounds are decorative, they aren't affected by zoom or field of view. But they avoid the "Deer in Space" look to your scenarios.

softwareReticle Graphic


You can use the computer-drawn sights, and/or your own .bmp, .jpg or .gif files. You have to be OK with MS Paint, or some other graphics editor.

Safety First: A gun in one hand and a camera in the other isn't safe. Unload, and remove the bolt or slide. Disassemble as far as possible.

You can photograph your own gunsights in front of a white sheet. A digital camera is great, since you can take 10 pictures and keep the best one. Try to get the sight picture right. Scope sights can be photographed as easily as iron sights, in my experience. I'm not sure about holosights and red dots, that might take some creative editing.

Quick and dirty: Save the graphic as monochrome, tidy the sight picture up a bit and save it in the /sightw/ directory. It will look a bit rough, but it works.

Slow and Pretty: With a full color graphic, draw a white line around the sight outline and white out the background in MS Paint. Then save it in the /sightw/ subdirectory.
All white pixels will become transparent in the program. White has to be pure White, or (Red:255, Green:255, Blue:255).
Otherwise you will get a tinted transparent area, which you may or may not like. If you increase the contrast a bit, the background will get whiter, but you will still have to draw around the edges a bit.
White dots on your sights will be transparent if they are pure white, which they probably aren't. You can change pure white to a off-white if you don't want it transparent.
Scaling:
If you know the field of view of your scope at 100 yards, crop the image close to the circle, and set the field of view to the right distance. You are then good to go.
You might want to check on the 9.5 meter range anyway.
If you don't know the field of view of your scope, or you have iron sights, use the 9.5 yard range and the 1" sticker in your hall.
Select both the "MOA reticle" and your homemade graphic on the "Simulator Controls" tab.
The 1" sticker at 9.5 yards is the same as 10 units on the "MOA Reticle".
If the image looks too small in the simulator, crop it and it will look bigger onscreen.
If the image looks too big in the simulator, increase the image size without stretching it, and it will look bigger onscreen. In MS Paint increase the size on the "Attributes" menu.
You are looking at about half an hour's work fiddling about. But if you have an aperture sight, you know what distance your aperture covers at about 10 yards, 10 times that at about 100 yards. This is information you can use in the field.


  • Scale your picture
    Safely unload and dissassemble you firarm, and point the sights at a 1" square 5 yards away. Remember what that looks like. Go into the simulator, set up a 1"x1" target at 5 yards.
    Load a photo of your sights into the simulator. Adjust the Field Of View so the 1" square looks the same as in the real world. Save the session on the file menu. Now your simulator will show you where the shots land in relation to your own sight picture. It doesn't have to be 1" and 5 yards, anything convenient.
    For a handgun, use your usual grip and stance. the distance from eye to sight has to be constant. Longarms, use your normal cheek weld.
    At 9.5 yards, 1 inch is 10 "Minutes of Angle" or 10 MOA. The "MOA crosshair" on the simulator has 10 MOA divisions on it. So every 10 units on the MOA crosshair is a 1" sticker at 9.5 yards. You can use this for scaling too.
    Again, don't point an intact firearm at anything you aren't prepared to shoot..

    softwareMetric and Maximum Range

    Metric and Maximum Range overrides the setting on the Input tab for your convenience. Metric sets the range to meters, everything else stays in inches.
    Free Ballistic Simulator Software updated Sunday August 01 2010 at 11:43am. Email Frank Clarke About Frank Clarke