The Horus Vision HoVR 1.0 weather meter and HoVR 1.0 BT 2000 laser rangefinder connect to its ballistic calculator app on your smart phone, transmitting data via Bluetooth.
August 21, 2020
By David M. Fortier
Horus Vision has always been a forward-thinking company, and its reticles have had a strong influence on long-range shooting. Horus offers an array of products, and I’m going to take a look at three stand-alone products—smartphone app, pocket weather meter and laser rangefinder—that don’t require a Horus Vision scope or reticle.
Horus Vision’s HoVR 1.0 BT 2000 laser rangefinder has an advertised ranging capability of 2,187 yards and Bluetooth connectivity to connect to, and communicate with, your smartphone loaded with the free Horus Ballistic Calculator app.
The laser rangefinder is compact and weighs 7.2 ounces. It is powered by a CR2 battery, features a built-in tripod adapter, 6X magnification and a 26mm objective lens. It provides both the range to the target and inclination. Plus, it can operate in scan mode to provide a continuous range readings of a target. The HoVR BT is easy to use and is a useful tool for quickly finding the range to a target and getting that information directly to the Horus ballistic calculator app. Suggested retail is $430.
The HoVR 1.0 weather meter works in conjunction with the HoVR 1.0 BT 2000 laser rangefinder. Like the laser rangefinder, it features Bluetooth connectivity that connects it to your smartphone and communicates with the Horus ballistic calculator app.
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Rather than being a complex weather station better suited for a meteorologist, the HoVR 1.0 weather meter is tailored for use by a rifleman. It measures wind speed, temperature, relative humidity, barometric pressure and altitude. You simply hit a button to access the data you need instead of having to scroll through screens.
It is powered by two AAA batteries; runtime is about 20 hours. Weight is seven ounces. It features rubber armor to shrug off impacts and rough handling. Suggested retail is $115.
The last piece of the puzzle is the ballistic calculator app, which you can download for free from the Google Play or Apple app stores. I downloaded it to a Samsung Note smartphone and set it up without issue. During setup, you will notice it requires you to give it permission to access your phone’s camera, location and storage. Loading data for your rifles, loads and reticles is pretty straightforward.
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The calculator displays four main sections: gun, target, atmospherics and solution. The solution section shows your reticle with a red dot indicating your hold mark. The weather meter and rangefinder linked to the ballistic calculator app without issue.
I tried the system out on my range using a 6.5mm Creedmoor Howa Oryx MDT. Conditions were not great, with a full-value wind running more than 20 mph, but it was a great opportunity to compare my range data with what the app generated for a firing solution. The app’s solutions matched my actual range data at 500 and 700 yards. The hardest part was trying to correctly estimate wind to input into the app because while the weather meter will read wind at your point, conditions could be very different downrange.
I liked all three products. They’re easy to use and quite handy, and they’re tools any serious rifle shooter should investigate.