Knowledge Base

What is Hornady 4DOF?

4DOF is a ballistics engine created by Hornady for their bullets as well as other common long range bullets made by other manufacturers. The 4DOF solver utilizes a modified point mass solution which models bullet flight in 4 degrees of freedom to provide incredibly accurate trajectories to extremely long ranges. The software does not use Ballistic Coefficients (BC), but instead utilizes Drag Coefficient versus Mach number data measured with a Doppler radar for each projectile. While the 4DOF solver does not use traditional ballistic coefficient numbers, the Kestrel 5700 with Hornady 4DOF also includes a traditional G1 & G7 ballistics engine for use with bullets which don’t have a 4DOF bullet file available.

Hornady 4DOF Solver