Bullet Trajectory Calculator
Plot the whole flight path — near zero, midrange rise, far zero and the drop beyond it — with wind drift, retained velocity and time of flight at every step.
Loads
Up to 4 loads share one chart and one table. Each keeps its own inputs.
Load inputs
Atmosphere
A station reading is used as entered. A sea-level reading is reduced to your altitude first, so do not subtract for altitude twice. Atmosphere guide.
Output
Solution at range
Drop vs range (in over yd)
| Range (yd) | Drop (in) | Drop MOA | Drop MIL | Wind (in) | Wind MOA | Wind MIL | Vel (fps) | Energy (ft·lbf) | Time (s) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0 | -1.80 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 2790 | 2489 | 0.000 |
| 100 | -0.00 | -0.00 | -0.00 | 0.52 | 0.50 | 0.15 | 2651 | 2248 | 0.111 |
| 200 | -3.15 | -1.50 | -0.44 | 2.01 | 0.96 | 0.28 | 2517 | 2025 | 0.227 |
| 300 | -11.80 | -3.76 | -1.09 | 4.65 | 1.48 | 0.43 | 2386 | 1820 | 0.349 |
| 400 | -26.59 | -6.35 | -1.85 | 8.52 | 2.03 | 0.59 | 2259 | 1631 | 0.479 |
| 500 | -48.17 | -9.20 | -2.68 | 13.62 | 2.60 | 0.76 | 2136 | 1459 | 0.615 |
| 600 | -77.37 | -12.32 | -3.58 | 20.12 | 3.20 | 0.93 | 2018 | 1301 | 0.759 |
| 700 | -115.09 | -15.70 | -4.57 | 28.13 | 3.84 | 1.12 | 1903 | 1157 | 0.912 |
| 800 | -162.44 | -19.39 | -5.64 | 37.80 | 4.51 | 1.31 | 1791 | 1025 | 1.075 |
| 900 | -220.70 | -23.42 | -6.81 | 49.33 | 5.23 | 1.52 | 1682 | 904 | 1.248 |
| 1000 | -291.11 | -27.80 | -8.09 | 62.78 | 6.00 | 1.74 | 1576 | 794 | 1.432 |
Dimmed rows are below the speed of sound, where the point-mass model and published coefficients both get less trustworthy. Positive drop means the bullet is above your line of sight. Values are shown in imperial units — switch in the header.
Reading a bullet's flight path
A bullet never flies flat. It leaves the muzzle below your line of sight, climbs across it a few tens of yards out, arcs above the crosshair through the midrange, crosses back down at your zero and falls away steadily after that. The chart on this page draws that curve relative to the line of sight, which is what your scope actually sees, so a positive number means the bullet is above the crosshair and a negative number means it is below.
Four inputs shape the curve more than anything else: muzzle velocity, ballistic coefficient with its drag model, sight height over bore and zero range. Velocity dominates the near field, the coefficient dominates the far field, and sight height quietly sets where the first crossing happens. Getting the drag model right matters as much as the number itself — see the G1 versus G7 guide.
Wind is handled from lag time: the difference between the real time of flight and the time the same distance would take in a vacuum, multiplied by the crosswind component of the wind you entered. Wind angle uses one convention across the whole site — 90° = full-value crosswind from the right. That model assumes a single steady wind along the entire path, which no real valley provides, so read the terrain between you and the target rather than trusting the column outright.
Once the curve looks right, print the solution as a DOPE card, check the near-field behaviour with the point blank range tool, or compare it with a published cartridge ballistics chart.
Frequently asked questions
- Why does the trajectory rise above my line of sight?
- The barrel points slightly upward relative to the scope so the bullet crosses the line of sight twice. Between the near crossing and your zero the path sits above the crosshair — that midrange rise is what a point blank range setup exploits.
- How far can this trajectory calculator solve?
- The solver steps the bullet downrange until it falls below a low-velocity cutoff, which for typical centrefire loads lands near 1,000 to 1,200 yards. Rows below the speed of sound are dimmed: the drag curve is least reliable through the transonic band, so treat those numbers as a starting point only.
- Does shooting uphill or downhill change the trajectory?
- Yes, and this calculator accounts for it. Enter the shooting angle and only the horizontal component of gravity acts across the flight path, so both uphill and downhill shots need less elevation than the same slope distance on the flat.