AR-15 Ballistics

"Why am I missing at long range?"

Point of Impact versus Point of Aim Out to 100 Yards With Different Zero Ranges

Ballistics is the science of projectiles (like rifle bullets) in flight. Rifle ballistics have three main components. Those are internal ballistics, external ballistics, and terminal ballistics. Each of those is an interesting field of study but in this article, we will focus on external ballistics. External ballistics is what happens from the instant the bullet exits the muzzle up until it hits the target.

I have trained US soldiers, I have trained foreign solders on several continents, I have trained new shooters, I have trained would-be competitors, and I have observed competitors at shooting competitions. From my observation, most shooters do not even know that ballistics “is a thing.” Again, from observation, only a small minority of shooters understand ballistics. A larger minority know that ballistics “is a thing” but do not know the ballistics of their round and the majority do not even know the term.