The Best Wind Meters for Long Range Shooting


Using a wind meter for long range shooting can be extremely helpful for predicting shot placement and compensating for cross wind conditions. Some high end wind gauges for shooting even have special applied ballistics functions that help you make calculations for shooting in the wind. There is a wide variety of shooting wind meters available today, and so helps to know the differences between them when you’re picking one out. We’ve done a round up of our favorite wind meters for shooting below.

The best wind meters for long range shooting

Caldwell Wind Wizard II Wind Meter

This Caldwell brand wind meter for shooting is a rugged and water resistant unit with an easy to read screen and a built in anemometer head (wind turbine). Measures: current wind speed (mph, ft/min, km/hr, m/s, or knots), average wind speed, max wind gust, and temperature (celsius or Fahrenheit). This budget-priced unit provides a decent wind reading for long range shooting, especially for the money.

The LCD backlight makes it easy to see your readings even in low light conditions and the water resistant casing protects the wind meter in inclimate weather. It even comes with a non-slip rubber casing for extra protection. Use the lanyard to conveniently wear it around your neck while you take your shots. Unit runs off a single coin style battery (included).

WeatherFlow Precision Shooting Wind Gauge

The free BallisticsARC iPhone and Android app allows to to calculate a variety of ballistics information when you used with this shooting wind meter wirelessly over Bluetooth (a non-bluetooth version that plugs into your phone’s headphone jack is also available, although it is missing a few features).

This unit provides a variety of data for shooting in the wind: wind speed & direction, temperature, dew point, heat index and wind chill, as well as density altitude and relative humidity. The BallisticsARC app also comes in a professional version (for $15) which gives you satellite imagery to provide a GPS rangefinder. See below for a screenshot of what this looks like in practice:

reading the wind shooting


Kestrel Elite Weather Meter with Applied Ballistics

The Kestrel Elite Weather Meter is the gold standard for wind meter shooting. It provides you with Kestrel’s industry-leading Applied Ballistics Elite Ballistics solver, and the ability to store up to 30 custom gun profiles and has a library of custom drag models for over 400 bullets. This model is ideal for sports shooters doing competitive long range shooting because it even has a privacy PIN code for Bluetooth (if you’re linking it up with an app).

If you want a standalone tripod that rotates as the wind changes direction, you can combine it with a rotating vane mount and tripod.

This unit is also rugged, drop-tested and floats. Available with and without Bluetooth, in four different color options. Runs off of one AA batteries (included). Comes with a protective pouch, neck lanyard and a 5 year warranty. Made in the USA.

For a more budget friendly option for reading the wind for shooting, check out the Kestrel Sportsman Weather Meter, the younger brother model to the Elite. It is able to store less custom information but it comes with the tripod, Bluetooth, and vane mount. Measures wind direction, speed, crosswind, humidity, pressure, altitude, temperature and more.

Bushnell 202540KC Elite 1 Mile Conx Laser Rangefinder with Kestrel Sportsman

This two pack includes both a Kestrel shooting wind meter, and a Bushnell Elite 1 Mile Conx laser rangefinder. Together they form a powerful duo giving you extreme accuracy under even challenging wind conditions. Both the Kestrel anemometer for shooting and the Bushnell Conx communicate wirelessly to iPhone and Android devices with the included apps to analyze conditions so you don’t have to do manual calculation or data input.

With this wind meter for long range shooting, you can create custom ballistic curves on your phone with data from the rangefinder and calculate how weather conditions and crosswinds will affect your shooting outcomes. With the ability to measure altitude, humidity and other weather conditions, as well as density altitude (a key metric for many shooters), this combo provides all you need to shoot more accurately than ever before taking cross winds into consideration, especially at long range.

Frequently asked questions about long range shooting wind meters

Which Kestrel for long range shooting?

In order to get a wind reading for long range shooting, we recommend choosing a model that includes applied ballistics functionality. Kestrel makes two models of long range shooting wind meters with applied ballistics: the Kestrel Elite and the Kestrel Sportsman. The Elite model has more functions and more memory for custom data, whereas the Sportsman has less (but also costs less).

What is the best wind meter for shooting?

On this page we’ve laid out several long range shooting wind meter options, but if we had to pick the absolute 100% most fully functioning one, it would have to be the Kestrel Elite Weather Meter with Applied Ballistics. Both this wind speed gauge’s features and its reputation as an industry standard speak for itself when it comes to wind meter shooting excellence. When you factor in budget however, there are plenty of other candidates for the best wind meter for long range shooting, which we’ve listed above.

What is the difference between the Kestrel Sportsman vs Elite for long range shooting?

Generally speaking the Kestrel Elite model has more memory banks for additional custom guns than the Kestrel Sportsman model has, and a more detailed ballistics display. Because the Kestrel ballistics solver calculates each combo of a gun and a bullet separately, having more data banks to store different combinations is quite useful (you can always overwrite on top of the memory banks but inputting the data is a bit cumbersome and slow).

Is it worth paying extra for a Bluetooth enabled Kestrel wind meter for shooting?

We’d say yes. If you’re going to be using an anemometer for long range shooting frequently or with a number of different gun/bullet combinations, it’s especially worthwhile. Not only does this mean you’re able to input combinations of bullets and guns more easily with a full sized phone keyboard (instead of the button combination on the Kestrel unit), it also has a nice display with additional information. If you do plan on using the iPhone or Android app with your Kestrel for long range shooting purposes, we recommend getting a wind vane and mount with it because holding both devices at once is awkward. Note that the app can store more rifle/load combinations than the Kestrel unit can, since your phone has more storage.