Pre-Match Intelligence Preparation and Analysis

Many of us travel to new locations to participate in a match or perhaps go on the hunt of a lifetime after we finally get the tag we’ve been waiting for. We all want to be prepared to face the challenges of a new shooting location. To plan and prepare, we must typically be able to answer questions such as:

• What is the overall travel and logistical plan for ourselves and our gear?
• What’s the route and travel plan for travel between the lodging accommodations and the shooting location?
• What is the terrain like that I will be hiking through?
• What clothing and gear will I need for the weather conditions?
• What is location’s atmospheric conditions and how will affect my rifle/ammo external ballistics (DOPE)?

There are many tools and resources available on the internet that can be leveraged to develop detailed travel plans as well as collect and analyze information needed to answer these questions. In the 6.5 Guys video episode below (S1 -21 – Pre-Match Intelligence Preparation and Analysis) we discuss how to use many of these tools to make the preparations necessary to shoot at a new location. There are a number of websites available to research, schedule and make travel and lodging reservations. This isn’t within the scope of what we discuss, but is a logical first place to start when planning out of town travel.

One of the primary resources for preparation that can be used is Google Maps. This is a fantastic resource that be used to plan travel routes between an origin and destination. Another powerful feature is its satellite imagery can be used to get a birds-eye perspective at what type of terrain to expect at a site to identify potential obstacles, key landmarks and features, and to develop preliminary plans for walking routes. This can be combined with an analysis of topographical maps of the area to have a sense of elevation changes at the location.

Weather websites will provide forecast information to plan for what clothing and gear will be ideal at the location you are traveling to. There are dozens of very good websites that provide weather and atmospheric information for locations across the globe. Our current favorite at the top of this list is Weather Underground. Weather Underground is unique in that much of the raw data aggregated and reported comes from its network of 37,000+ Personal Weather Stations that are owned and operated by individuals or private businesses that share this information. This network of weather information is the world’s largest active community of weather data collectors.

Weather Underground has many advanced features that other weather websites do not have such as the ability to download data into desktop tools such as Excel for additional analysis. In our video we describe how to utilize this historical and forecast weather data (temperature, barometric pressure, humidity, wind, etc.) to develop ballistic drop (DOPE) cards.

It should be noted that subsequent to posting our video, we learned something important that will need to be factored in when using Weather Underground atmospheric pressure data when calculating external ballistics. – The Weather Underground reports this information as “pressure”, 6.5 Guys originally understood this data to be Station Pressure (SP), as opposed to Equivalent Barometric Pressure at Sea Level (SLP). A month after making the video we have learned that this data is actually SLP. Note that there is a difference, explained below:

• Station pressure (SP) is the raw, actual pressure. That’s the real pressure measured by the instrumentation at the location.
• Sea level pressure (SLP) is the result of a much more complicated formula that takes as inputs, station pressure, elevation, humidity, and the simple average of current temperature and temperature 12 hours previous. In addition, the National Weather Service formulas add in an adjustment that is precomputed per location (the plateau correction). There are a number of different sea level pressure formulas, giving slightly different results.

Scientists long ago realized that atmospheric pressure drops as your altitude increases, as the atmosphere gets thinner the higher up you go. Thus a barometer reading in Seattle would be a lot different than a reading in Denver at the same weather conditions. To “level” the playing field, so to speak, scientists developed a way to calculate what the pressure is at sea-level, no matter what your altitude is.

Since the Weather Underground “Pressure” data is SLP, to use this information to develop a DOPE card as explained in the video you will need to convert the Pressure reported to the equivalent Station Pressure. To do this, you will need to use the reported “Altitude” shown by the station reporting the weather data on Weather Underground, and then run it through a conversion calculator which you can find at this URL:

http://www.csgnetwork.com/barcorrecthcalc.html

The weather data can be used along with a ballistic calculator to develop a ballistic drop card (DOPE card). There are a number of good ones that are commonly used on smart phones (e.g., Shooter, Ballistic AE, Strelok, etc.). JBM Ballistics offers one of the best ones available online and is free to use. There are a couple of good videos available on YouTube that provide detailed walk throughs on how to use the JBM application:

• 8541 Tactical | MCM #24 – How to make dope cards using JBM Ballistics Calculator
• TiborasaurusRex | Sniper 101 = JBM Ballistics Introduction

Feelings of nervousness or apprehension before a match or a hunt can be exacerbated if you are going someplace for the first time. Your data collection can go beyond atmospherics to include photos, street views, conducting a virtual tour, or evening reaching out and contacting others that have shot at the location previously. As you invest a few hours of research, analysis, and planning the new location will become familiar and put you at ease knowing you are better prepared for your upcoming shooting adventure.