Re: Elevation correction for rain?
OK here's my observations...
It affected elevation. I'm normally 6' tall and today I was only 5'10" 1/2. My truck sat about 3" lower. Well...OK...it sank 3 inches.
It was raining like a bitch as you can see. One issue was that it got hard to see the target at times. This pic is at full zoom and there's a plate at 600 and 850.
I think based what I saw today I'd say it does affect my vertical spread but I think saying that it affects elevation is misleading. I'm not sold on the notion that the pressure wave prevents raindrops from contacting the round. To the contrary I think the round has to push through them and has the same effect as a headwind, albiet intermittently.
I rarely get much deviation in vertical spread but today I saw more vertical than horizontal. Where it was really noticable was at 600 yds since I use a smaller plate. Splash was easy to see since there was several inches of water on the ground and I saw numerous shots go wildly low which never happens to me, and these were called hits. At 850 those low shots were still on the plate as the plate was much bigger.
Winds were too crazy to call and were all over the place. I did tag my cold bore and missed 2 out of 20 on this target. I know that an aircraft eats more runway because the tires have to push water out of the way and I'd wager the effect is similar for a projectile. It seemed to increase my vertical spread (from normal) around 4 inches on the low side.
I doubt a light rain or shooting at shorter distances would matter much. I also have to factor that I was shooting through some steady streams of roof runoff from the overhead.
What I'd like to know is whether looking through a curtain of rain affects your perception of the target in the same way that water can bend light in other situations such as the old pencil in a glass of water trick. I wonder if there is a mirage effect.
