Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters You guys always talking about shooting in the wind and it fu cking up your groups

Yes, wind does run in "cycles". Most guys don't think about that. I'll fill you in. In my trade, I deal with the wind always. It's usually down on the river of some sort, welding on a barge or tug boat. When welding, you are always watching the wind. Especially when running dual shield, as the gas shielding is blown away by the wind and causes pinholes, if it's bad enough. There are always lulls that you watch for. When shooting, it's the same way. There are also days when it seems constant, but it backs off and on. You just have to be in tune and realize what it is doing. Good point rost..

Thanks Guy. It's been fun working on it. It is pretty consistent after some glass bedding and fine tuning. Rifle was like new when I got it.

It isn't just different wind at the 100-200-300 lines, it can be different wind over each 100 yard increment at the 300 line.

An interesting and informative thread, thanks to some guys who really know the topic.

This is why I place little value on most reports of rifle accuracy "testing", even those by professional gun writers. I also spent about 10 years as range officer on a public range, watched countless shooters with expensive equipment burning quantities of ammo "testing" , and getting less than optimal results. I often found that even polite, low key suggestions were not always welcome, so I mostly gave up and let them do their thing, so long as it was safe.

It's all good, I guess.

Thanks for the very informative post, Al!

I mostly shot club matches for benchrest. Assisted Dick Wright running his matches at Harrison, I did the stats and acted as range officer, called range commands for one relay. We ran ten matches a season opposite of Holton but I never made it over to Holton for their matches. My boss expected me to work two weekends a month. While Harrison had nice benches there was a rise in the ground between the firing line and the targets. Flag stands had to be really short so flags had to be staggered horizontally as you've described.

This was the 100 yard range at Isabella County, Dick and I ran matches there for Steve Robbins. As you can see tall stands worked on this range so I'd stagger my flage by height. Ya, the last flag might be a couple of inches too high... 🤭

Randy Robinett and I loaded with Dick at Holton for the IBS Score Nationals. I'd read his articles in P.S. for years and he was exactly how I had imagined he would be. An interesting guy, for sure. Glorya was there too but I could tell she was pretty sick.

Your pic with the tall grass on the side reminded me of when I shot the IBS Nationals in Dublin, Georgia. There were signs along the range saying 'Stay Within Range Boundary' Well, someone had wandered off into the tall grass to relieve himself after setting flags. The range officer yelled loudly over the speakers: "Hey....you out there in the tall grass! Get the Hell outta there....there's big ass rattle snakes in that grass!!!"

Just the week before, they had killed a 6 foot timber rattler on the range.

Too funny!!!

Good shootin' -Al

😁

Only problem with Dick was that he was a liberal. That lead to some very spirited conversation in the range house... 🤣
Glorya was a sweetheart, keeping Dick on a leash was a full-time job for her.

It was pretty interesting when Dick and my pal Dan Hackett got talking....two liberals that loved the shooting sports. In both cases, they were guys that loved to argue (in the legal sense of the word). Very passionate people, for sure.

Now back to our regularly scheduled programming.... -Al

Shooting while your breaking wind always messes up the group


Trystan

I call BS on this wind BSA…… and I believe this is a mirage issue intended to offer more chances to post pic’s of that H&R you stumbled onto. And then it was confirmed when the magazine pics showed up! My friend here has a 7x57 that has traveled all over and hunted hard. Always said if I saw one in 7mm I would have to grab it. Now your making me think I should have taken the 06 I passed on a few years back……. Dust in the Wind!

Yes, the good ones can really rip 'em down there. Of course, the train wrecks can be pretty spectacular, too.

The thing about shooting like this is: slow is smooth and smooth is fast. In steady conditions with a light gun like a 6PPC, about the best I can do with 5 very well aimed shots is about 18-20 seconds...firing, ejecting, loading and getting the dot where I want it and still be good on the gun handling. The 30BRs, even in the 13.5 lb. HV guns just move around too much to be able to shoot this quickly. Your 'table manners' have to be perfect every time with these 30s...the PPC guns are much more forgiving in that respect.

When you shoot fast, you better be able to get on the brakes just as fast.

Good shootin' -Al

Truth. On a windy day on the silhouette line it's a question of which is making it worse. The wind blowing me around or blowing the bullets around. With wind flags at least you can take some actions with the bullets.

Good stuff Al, thanks!

Guy

Something that's important to grasp is how much a truly accurate rifle will teach you about the wind. Many shooters think that the wind isn't a factor simply are being faked out due to the fact that wind induced bullet displacement is just lost in the noise of the overall large group sizes.

I mention this because early on, I was one of those guys.

As I worked to improve the accuracy of my predator and 'dog guns, trends began to emerge. Somewhere around the 1/2" 5 shot group size, I started to question my 'facts' concerning wind. And around the 3/8" group sizes, there was no doubt that I had stuff wrong. The first time I sat down behind a pals real deal Benchrest rig and got some wind coaching, it was like a hammer hit me on the side of the head.

Good shootin' -Al

Al,

I went through a similar transformation around 1990, while attending the annual "Groundhog Shooters and Prevaricators Conference" that Melvin Forbes of Ultra Light Arms used to throw in West Virginia, on the 800-acre "farm" he and some friends had purchased years before to have a place to hunt, shoot and generally prevaricate.

Of course, there was a 100-yard range just far enough away from the front porch of the old farmhouse where much of the prevaricating took place, and that year the late Mickey Coleman attended. He brought more than one of the very accurate benchrest rifles he was known to build, and provided my first real lesson on the use of wind flags. Of course, that eventually led down several different rabbit-holes, including finding out just how well a typical heavy-barreled factory .223 "varmint" rifle could shoot, given some accurizing and good handloads....

John

My group was shot semi auto with an AR22 and I used that exact technique with that exact downside outcome. Our 100 yard range is notorious for wind and has humbled more than one name smallbore prone competitor. Herb Hollister vowed never to shoot there again. KI thought I might be able to grab a condition and get my group on paper during that condition. Clearly I went a little too fast (or not fast enough) and didn't catch the flip.