Shooting InThe Wind

  • 918 Views
  • Last Post 04 September 2025
  • Topic Is Solved
pat i posted this 24 August 2025

Since match shooting seems to get little attention on here or in the FS anymore a quick survey for how people who use flags handle the wind. Do you hold off for different conditions or hopefully wait for a condition to return? Personally I wait for a condition to return but my results might prove that's not the best approach. So how do you go about it? I'm far from what you would call a good or even fair flag reader but maybe I'm going about it the wrong way and have to step up my game.

Attached Files

  • Liked by
  • Wilderness
Order By: Standard | Newest | Votes
Wilderness posted this 24 August 2025

Pat

Not match shooting and definitely Hillbilly.

I hang a length of surveyors' tape off my target frame, shoot with bare legs, and leave laces hanging off my (Oehler) chronograph setup (laces normally used to tie up the cords for transport and storage). I realise that the wind at the firing point is more important than the wind at the target, hence the short pants and hanging laces.

Since I'm usually combining a test of something with a zero check, I prefer to shoot when the tape is hanging straight down, with no contra-indications from legs or laces. Otherwise I may just settle for a "condition" (e.g. tape at 45 degrees) and shoot to it.

I check the wind forecast before I decide to go to the range and I get there early, both to get the chronograph set up and to beat the wind.

You are only as good as your library.

Attached Files

  • Liked by
  • pat i
  • Glenn R. Latham
Aaron posted this 24 August 2025

When I shot long range I determined if conditions were steady. If steady, dope the rifle. If fleeting, wait for the wind to settle down. If under a time constraint, know the difference in inches on target and adjust immediately for current condition with Kentucky windage.

 

With rifle in hand, I confidently go forth into the darkness.

Attached Files

  • Liked by
  • pat i
  • muley
Tom Acheson posted this 25 August 2025

Odd, just this past Saturday we had a match and it was crazy windy!

Someone asked the Match Director if it was always this windy (western Wisconsin) and the reply was “this was the windiest match he could recall”.

One of our shooters put out wind flags and an adjacent shooter commented that he uses flags too, but often he seems to ignore them. Makes you wonder how many others do that?

Anyway, to answer your question Pat…hold off and modify your wind-influenced aiming point OR wait it out waiting for a repeat condition? (Good luck convincing yourself the SAME condition is repeatable.)

I do have flags but I get quite absorbed with the things I need to do to get the shot off, and yes, I too am not disciplined enough to always look at my flags. If I look, I try the hold-off, trying to estimate an alternate aiming point on the target. Doing the breach seating drill consumes a lot of my attention…. and the clock is ticking. There is not time to sit and wait on a repeat condition.

Match conditions are not cherry-picked. Everyone has the same challenge, not just me.

Tom

Attached Files

Boschloper posted this 25 August 2025

Here in New Hampshire there aren’t any matches that are even reasonably close so I only shoot the postal matches. At my local club there is a berm with some pretty tall trees on top along one side. I use the last firing point next to this berm, thinking that the berm and trees will block a most of the wind, and I can watch the movement of the trees to dope the wind. Mostly I forget to watch the trees and just shoot.

Attached Files

Glenn R. Latham posted this 25 August 2025

Pat, that's a question for the ages.  At the 22 LR benchrest matches I shoot, the guys always tell you, "The flags lie."  They're not wrong!  I think maybe more than the flags lying, they just can't show you everything that's going on out there.  Like when you get high (usually) or (sometimes) low flyers.  Are there any flags that can show up or down drafts?  

At the last 50 yard match (on the plains), the wind was pretty strong (the match director said the weather station at the east end of the property said mostly steady winds of 18 mph with gusts to 30).  The wind was coming in from 5:00 to 7:00, so wasn't as bad as a cross wind.  The top shooters were still shooting 498 to 500 out of 500 on the 1/2" 10-ring.  I only managed 485 with my MTR.

At the last 100 yard 22 shoot (in the mountains), the top shooters were scoring 392-396 (out of 400) on a 7/8" 10-ring.  Winds were light (always are up there) but squirrely!  I couldn't pick a condition because nothing stayed around.  I shot a lot of sighters and hoped.  Only managed 379 with the MTR.  I will have to bend some ears at the next match and see how the top shooters are handling things.

At the CBA national tournament last September, I was fortunate to shoot next to Dan Hudson, and so watched his water bottle "flags" more than my own.  When I really concentrated and picked a condition, I finally managed a 50 (out of 50) on one score target.

Glenn

Attached Files

fa38 posted this 25 August 2025

Up and down drafts.

https://www.mtcshooting.com/offering/  The  fifth flag down.

https://www.brflags.com/shop/uppy-downy-wind-flag/

Attached Files

  • Liked by
  • pat i
pat i posted this 25 August 2025

A lot of good info. So from what I gather holding off is probably best. A lot of guys do the same as me. Put flags out as lawn ornaments without paying them much mind. Try to set up next to a guy using one of those wind indicators instead of flags. Wind reading's an art and I aint no artist. And finally say a prayer, line up the crosshairs, and hope for the best.

Attached Files

  • Liked by
  • Glenn R. Latham
  • Sevenfan
Bud Hyett posted this 25 August 2025

The winds were so bad coming from all directions at Windhill one match that I gave up and shot on the rise of the wind coming from 9 o'clock. 

I held on the very edge of the 10-ring at 9 o'clock and won the match.

Farm boy from Illinois, living in the magical Pacific Northwest

Attached Files

pat i posted this 25 August 2025

They don't call that place Windhill for nothing.

Attached Files

  • Liked by
  • Bud Hyett
Glenn R. Latham posted this 25 August 2025

 Thanks for the links Martin!

Glenn

Attached Files

John Alexander posted this 25 August 2025

Wilderness notes that wind at the firing line is more important  than the wind at the target. He is right, of course, but that is a major understatement. He craftily pays more attention to the wind on his bare legs and bootlaces. The wind at the target is useless information because it has NO EFFECT on bullet deflection. All deflection is obviously over when the bullet get to the target.

What about the argument that it represents the last 20 yards? It may,  but would you be worrying about wind if you were shooting twenty yards from the target?

The wind at say ten yards, representing the first twenty yards, deflects the bullet at least four times as far as the last twenty yards because, once deflected, the direction of the bullet continues for another 80 yards,  Plus or minus that the wind does during. the rest of the tripl

I think most shooters understand this, but I mention this because at most matches you will see some shooters placing flags at, or near, the target, the least useful location on the range.

John

Attached Files

RicinYakima posted this 25 August 2025

The NRA published a picture of Bill Jordan shooting vermin off the hood of the pickup. He used a kid's whirly gig spinner with a tail sitting on next to him; caption said he was making 300 yard hits. 

Attached Files

  • Liked by
  • pat i
  • Bud Hyett
.22-10-45 posted this 25 August 2025

In The Art Of Bullet Casting book, Carl Johnson has an article Cast Bullet Loads For The .22-250.  He states that these light bullets are highly susceptible to shifting winds.  He states..."As any bench rest competitor will tell you, the "best possible conditions" aren't during a calm day.  A little wind will do wonders for the apparent accuracy of a load.  Provided you shoot when the wind is coming from the same direction and about the same intensity."  

    Have you guys found this to be true?  Does a steady wind give the bullet something to "bite" and hold its course?

Attached Files

RicinYakima posted this 25 August 2025

I think that is true, but because it clears any slight mirage in still conditions with humidity. 

Attached Files

MarkinEllensburg posted this 26 August 2025

My home range has a near ever-present 9-10 o'clock wind 15-17 mph, although some days have higher gusts. The days I have shot my best groups in practice were days with a steady crosswind. I usually shoot at the bench next to our range boundary berm that is 15 or so feet high, up wind. Ric is spot on about the absence of mirage when there is wind, at least in my experience, sometimes. I seem to recall a match at Pasco this spring where at 200 yards it was nearly impossible to see bullet holes due to mirage and it was also windy. 

At matches, when I bother with a wind flag I set it just past halfway. There are also surveyor tap hanging from the baffles closer to the bench. I glance on the tapes and my wind flag and try to make my shots when conditions are consistent. Other times I hold off and hope. I've not mastered either.

Attached Files

Ken Campbell Iowa posted this 26 August 2025

here are my humble observations about wind from my time shooting 50 yard ARA rimfire bench.

1.  do your best calculations based on all the advice from expert shooters ... then hold off only half that calculated amount.

2.  if you draw a bench with any structure near your firing lane ... berm, tree, ground bump ... you are screwed ...  best to just aim at the bull and hope the other guys try to outguess themselves when they arrive at the demon bench.

2.  yes, there are uplifts and downlifts ... we built an indoor 50 yard range and detected air density differences even indoors ...  we installed a huge centrifugal crop drying fan to create a constant airflow.  even then our best shooting conditions was a light wind outdoors in the middle of about a half mile of level meadow with the final distance over a 1 acre farm pond.  

I miss those matches and watching my bullets flying back and forth little a drunken honeybee down towards those tiny bullseyes ...  

Attached Files

Paul Pollard posted this 26 August 2025

To test the theory of wind nearest the bench, I set a leaf blower on the highest setting at 2 yards in front of the muzzle. The target was at 50 yards. The rifle was a .177 air rifle with 8 grain pellet at 830 fps. I shot a 10 shot group with and without the extra wind. The targets looked the same. Same group size, same impact on targets. I wasn’t sure what to make of it, so I bought 10 more tins of those pellets!

Attached Files

Lucky1 posted this 26 August 2025

I make no claim to having mastered the wind call; and it is a constant issue here in SD. John A. has certainly proven his skill with close windflags but there are weird exceptions.
At Hawkeye last Sat, I put a wind flag next to my 100 yard target so it was at least near the bullet path. The wind was variable from 10 to 2 and had never heard of the word constant. Hawkeye is different since the benches are elevated and the berms too. So my close windflag ends up in a hole and reacts differently from what a I feel. The idea is to use the 100 yard flag as a leading indicator for an oncoming gust and then wait for the wind noise in the muffs to abate and not feel it on my face too. The berm there can make it a real treat some days. Wind from the front or the back can be pain some days. Mirage really vexes me some days too and the breeze does help that at least.

Scott Ingle

Attached Files

Bud Hyett posted this 26 August 2025

I use wind flags, often I use mine plus someone else's wind flags. The forest of flags is there for everyone to use and sometimes, especially at Springfield, Oregon, the flags on the edge of the range will give you early warning of a wind change.

In tricky wind conditions, I attempt to shoot on the rise of the wind as that is the most predictable. You never know where the wind gust will top out, but the rise will be closer to constant. This requires a close watch on the tail of the flag to catch the movement and shoot in that moment. 

Farm boy from Illinois, living in the magical Pacific Northwest

Attached Files

John Alexander posted this 26 August 2025

Paul,

Very interesting post.  Maybe this whole wind drift thing is all in our heads, like some painful ailments that can be cured by a shrink helping us discovering our hidden anger or fears. It sure as hell is mysterious to me some days.

Have you tried putting the leaf blower just before the target.  Maybe my post above is completely backward.

By the way, what brand were those pellets?

John

Attached Files

  • Liked by
  • pat i
Show More Posts
Categories
Search
Popular Tags
This Weeks High Earners
Hot Topics
Close