Hi everyone, I hope this email finds you well during these challenging times. It has been a long time since my last post however I am happy to report that we are still at the coal face. This year has nevertheless presented us with some difficulties with regards to how we deliver our business. Following issues with the Paypal system, we had to retire this service which in turn has affected how we deliver some of our services. It is also worth noting that we are seeing some problems with some email services due to the subject matter (i.e. ballistics / rifles etc.). Emails sent from myself or the website, including order confirmations and download links, may go to the recipient’s spam folder as a result of increased internet security measures. Emails and download links can nevertheless easily be retrieved from the customers spam folder. It is simply a matter of being aware of mail handling. If you have ordered a product and do not for example immediately receive a download link, you will find the email within your spam folder.

Free webinar this Sunday (Saturday Northern hemisphere)

Time: 8am Sunday 19^th December, Auckland NZ time. (Eastern Standard Time: 2pm Saturday 18^th December)

Web link: https://meet.jit.si/moderated/bb04162650a9ddac44d658dee40d249241abdc4bf0b33fe4ebff2bef623034bf

One thing I have been trying to work through is a way that we can all communicate in a more meaningful manner. As much as I have enjoyed the youtube podcasts, they were always one sided with the viewer only able to communicate within a text box which made it very hard for the viewer to provide context to questions. We looked into zoom conferencing but this is quite expensive and I was hoping to be able to offer seminars either free of charge or at a low cost to our viewers.

I believe we have found a temporary solution via jitsi.org. This is free open-source software and users do not need to create an account to use this platform. We are going to trial Jitsi this weekend (see time above). Once at the url (given above), all you need to do is enter your first name or a nickname and press the join meeting button. You will of course have to make sure that your camera and microphone are turned on. The downside of this platform is that it has a limit of 100 people per session, therefore we will have to do this on a first come, first serve basis.

There will be no specific topic for this weekend’s webinar. If you can think of any questions you would like to ask me between now and the weekend, write them down. I am hoping that via video conferencing I can provide greater clarification to specific questions rather than get lost in generalizations. Although this is a free webinar, if you find the information useful and are in a position to help, a small donation thereafter would be appreciated.

Just keep in mind that there may be a few mistakes as I trial this. I am not the most tech savvy.

Video Learning

One positive aspect of the challenges mentioned at the beginning of this email is that we have been forced to look at better delivery systems for our products. Customers will be happy to know that our learning series videos are now hosted on our website as direct downloads. As these are downloadable products, we ask that you please do not share them. The funds from these video help to support our family along with ongoing research. Link to video series:

https://www.ballisticstudies.com/shop/Video+Learning.html

The video files are formatted to MP4 H264 and are generally very large (e.g. 3 to 5 GB), you may therefore wish to use a download manager. This software tool helps to ensure that your video will continue to download if you have a poor (or dropped) connection. A free open-source download manager can be found here:

https://www.freedownloadmanager.org/download.htm

Following a purchase, you will immediately receive two automated emails. The first is your order confirmation. The second email contains a link to your download. If you cannot see the download email, then it is most likely in your spam folder. If you do not receiver either email, then you have most likely entered an incorrect email address when placing your order.

Note that you only have two days to download the file from the email link. The link will expire thereafter (for our security). If you fail to download your file as a result of either an incorrect email address or expiry, we will do our best to help (or provide a refund) however you must take some responsibility for your purchase by entering the correct details and downloading the file immediately.

Note also that some of the latest Apple computer video players are set by default to H265 video format. You will therefore need to make sure that the video player on your Apple device is set up to play H.264 codec videos.

To check that your player will play these videos, click here to download a test video.

Apple / Mac users may also want to try the free VLC media player:

https://www.videolan.org/vlc/download-macosx.html

Free videos (youtube)

Steph goes hunting with a .257 Weatherby Magnum:

https://youtu.be/mEpBtA7ccaI

Steph goes hunting with the 350 Legend:

https://youtu.be/Um5otKaH2QI

Excerpt from a talk I gave at a Manawatu Deerstalkers club night:

https://youtu.be/Ikc_EjSD_S8

Well, that’s about it from us. I would like to take this opportunity to say thanks to each of you for supporting our business and family along with your very kind and supportive emails which brighten our days. I cannot thank you enough for such kind gestures. I do hope that you have been able to get away hunting this year, or at the very least taken time to relax in the wilderness or perhaps engage in practice shooting.

From our family to yours, we wish you all the best for this coming Christmas and the following new year.