Why Your Shot Missed

Miss Pattern → First Check

• Wrong direction: check the gun origin, axis order, bearing direction, and degrees-versus-mils entry.
• Consistently left or right: check the north-clockwise bearing and the selected 6400- or 6000-mil convention.
• Consistently short or long: check that the final gun-to-target range—not a relay leg or observer radius—reached Ballistics, then verify the load in the current build.
• Correct-looking math in the wrong sector: inspect every valid triangulation candidate.

Start with the Last Complete Solution

Preserve the values that produced the shot. Record gun coordinate, target coordinate, firing bearing, mil value and convention, final range, charge, elevation, and selected triangulation candidate. If those values are not available, rebuild the order from the original report before experimenting. A correction is useful only when you know what it corrected.

1. Was the Order Copied Correctly?

Compare the tool result and the in-game entry digit by digit. Look for a missing decimal, transposed coordinate, wrong sign, or value copied from an intermediate relay leg. Confirm that bearing and elevation did not exchange fields. Verify that the charge shown on the final firing card is the charge actually selected. Transcription is the fastest check because it requires no new calculation.

2. Was the Gun Position Preserved?

The gun remains the final firing origin. In Relay mode, the spotter is an intermediate point; in Triangulation, observer stations constrain the target. Neither becomes the gun. If your final range was measured from a spotter, return to the Firing Solution Planner and compute the direct gun-to-target bearing and range from the resolved coordinate.

Also check whether the gun position changed in the game after the original report. A correct solution tied to an old origin becomes wrong when the origin moves.

3. Is the Bearing Convention Correct?

The site uses north as 0 degrees and increases clockwise. East is 90, south 180, and west 270. A mathematical angle from east or a counterclockwise reading can rotate or mirror the target. Use the plot for a direction sanity check: if the target should be northeast, it should appear above and right of the gun on a north-up display.

If the sight uses mils, confirm both the entered value and the circle convention. A 6400-circle conversion and a 6000-circle conversion are not interchangeable. Recalculate with the Mils Converter rather than applying a remembered ratio.

4. Are Coordinates and Distances in One Unit?

Check axis order, scale, and decimal precision. A point recorded in one map unit cannot be combined directly with a range recorded in another. Relay legs and triangulation radii must all use the same unit. Auto-fit can make a long vector look short on screen, so compare the numeric final range instead of estimating from line length.

5. Did You Choose the Correct Candidate?

Ray–circle and circle–circle intersections may return two valid points. The calculator intentionally displays both because geometry cannot infer mission context. Compare each candidate with the map, expected sector, and any additional report. If the wrong candidate was selected, do not tune charge or elevation; select the other coordinate and recompute the final gun-to-target solution.

6. Did You Use Final Range?

Ballistics needs final range from gun to target. It does not need gun-to-spotter distance, spotter-to-target distance, observer-to-target radius, or the visual length of a plotted segment. Return to the geometry result and copy its final range into the Ballistic Calculator.

7. Check the Firing Reference Last

The site's charge and elevation combinations come from a labeled community-reference model. The trajectory graphic is illustrative and does not predict exact in-game flight behavior. After geometry and transcription pass, verify the selected load against the current in-game calculator or behavior for the build you are using. Do not interpret a version mismatch as proof that the map geometry is wrong.

Read the Miss as a Directional Clue

When the game provides a useful impact position or correction, compare it with the intended target. A consistent left or right error suggests bearing, origin, or angular conversion. A consistent short or long error after geometry is confirmed suggests range transcription or firing-reference selection. A wildly different direction usually points to a reversed vector, wrong origin, swapped axes, or degree/mil confusion rather than a small zeroing adjustment.

Change one understood value at a time. If you change bearing, charge, and elevation together, the next impact cannot tell you which change mattered.

Worked Diagnostic Example

Imagine an invented relay where the spotter is 4 units east of the gun and the target is 3 units north of the spotter. The final gun-to-target range is 5 units, not 3 and not 7. If 3 is entered into Ballistics, the geometry stage was completed but the wrong intermediate value was handed off. If the bearing is entered as though the target were measured from the spotter, the range and direction belong to different origins. Reopen Relay mode, inspect the final output block, and copy the gun-to-target pair together.

Common Mistake Checklist

• Old gun coordinate or moved origin.
• East/north axes swapped.
• Bearing reversed by 180 degrees.
• Counterclockwise mathematical angle used as a clockwise bearing.
• Wrong 6400- or 6000-mil convention.
• Mixed map units or early rounding.
• Wrong ambiguous intersection candidate.
• Relay-leg or observer range copied as final range.
• Community-reference load not checked in the current build.
• Several variables changed after one impact.

Recovery Workflow

1. Restore the original report and gun coordinate.
2. Choose Direct, Relay, or Triangulation again from the report structure.
3. Re-enter values with their origins and units visible.
4. Inspect direction and every candidate.
5. Copy final bearing and range as one pair.
6. Rebuild the firing card from final range.
7. Verify the load in game.
8. Apply only one justified correction after the next observed impact.

If mode selection is still unclear, read Spotter Relay and Triangulation. For a clean restart from the report, follow the First Firing Solution Guide.

Sources and Scope

This diagnostic applies standard planar geometry and the clearly labeled community-reference firing model described in Data Sources and Calculation Methods. The game identity is checked against the official IRON NEST Steam listing. Game behavior and firing values can change by build, so verify load-specific conclusions in the current game.