hold or dial for wind?

[dzander]

I have a left side windage adjustable scope, Kahles 6x24, SMR3 reticle.
If i was shooting say 400 out to 900 yards.
Would you dial or use the reticle and why?
If wind speed is say 5-10 mph or so, or something like that.
I have time, not on a clock.
Is there a preferred method or just personal preference?

 

[47guy]

for what i do hold...always hold...its faster and easier to make adjustments or if you get pick ups or let offs....ive seen guys forget they have wind dialed in and blow stages.

 

[SN13]

I prefer to hold if the reticle allows.

There's no Zerostop for windage and the wind may gust and change rapidly.

10mph cross wind, can die to nothing.

Calm afternoon, can whip up to 15mph gusts with an approaching storm in seconds.

Plus, if you're shooting into the wind, you may find it switching from 11, to 1 and now you have to dial the other direction.

That's just my personal opinion.

 

[M8541Reaper]

It’s really personal preference but you should train on both methods. You can also train to do both during multiple target engagements. So you’d dial for one distance and hold for another follow on TGT at a different distance.

 

[PJC]

Have always held wind.

 

[308pirate]

It’s really personal preference but you should train on both methods. You can also train to do both during multiple target engagements. So you’d dial for one distance and hold for another follow on TGT at a different distance.

This. Not only is it situation dependent, it's also dependent on how the wind is behaving at any particular time.

Mostly steady wind with minor let offs and pick ups? I'll dial for the prevailing wind and hold off when I see changes.

Switchy winds? Reticle holds 100%

Gusty wind? Hold off.

 

[CoryT]

We teach clients to hold for wind with two exceptions.

One, on moving targets. Simpler to dial the dominant wind then hold for lead only, shading the hold if the wind changes a bit. It can be complex for the shooter to alter the hold when the target speed and direction is variable and you have to add or subtract a wind value on top of it.

Two, for extreme range shots where we dial on SD, CE and wind in excess of a mil, so as to minimize the distance we need to hold off.

Dialing values poses a challenge to the spotter, who must remember there is an initial value dialed on before announcing the hold.

 

[dzander]

what sd and ce mean?

 

[SN13]

what sd and ce mean?

Spin Drift
Coriolis Effect

 

[Steel head]

99% of the time I hold wind.

 

[Mike Shoots Stuff]

I have learned to do both but like others have said, it depends on the situation.
-In High Power Rifle during slow fire stages where I have 1 minute per shot, I dial. If the wind changes, I can wait for it to come back to what I have dialed. My tactic is just to watch the flags and shoot when they're in the same condition that I'm zeroed for. For rapid fire, I dial, fire my first two rounds, check the impacts and make an adjustment if needed, and fire the other eight rounds. If I sense a wind change, now I'm only holding a small amount, usually inside the X or 10 ring.
-In practical precision rifle (PRS, NRL, etc), It really depends on how many target ranges are in the stage. If the stage has one target, or multiple targets close enough in range: Dial. If the stage has multiple targets at different ranges, I may dial on the close target's wind and that way I'm only holding a small amount for the farther targets. If I have time, I will dial for all.
I've shot these matches with both gen 2 mildot and H58. I really only use the Horus for correcting follow on shots if the first round missed.
-That's all for Optics with target turrets. With Iron sights in High Power, I have learned to hold about 1MOA but no more than that accurately. With optics using a BDC reticle, hold since the turrets are covered or not they're not meant to be used like target turrets.

BLUF. I prefer to dial, and if given the time dial for changes. Or, dial initially and that way hold a smaller amount. The real key is minding the wind for each shot.

 

[Dthomas3523]

Here’s my usual:

Single target + steady wind = dial

Single target + switching wind = hold

Multiple target + heavy but steady wind = dial first or enough for first few targets and then hold

Multiple target + small wind switchy or steady = hold

Mover = dial

 

[Dthomas3523]

Anything too far away from center of reticle, I will dial if I have time. We train so much for natural point of aim as center of reticle, so subconsciously we will do that by habit.

Keeping the windage hold closer to center alleviates some issues with NPA like that.

 

[gunsnjeeps]

I shoot service rifle. Generally I dial wind changes. For slow prone, I will dial wind but if I catch a wind shift I'll hold off if the shift isn't big or permanent. We get a lot of fishtail winds. So it might change a half minute either way every couple of shots so I hold in that. For crossing winds I'll dial as we go. I've had strings change 5 or 6 minutes in 20 rounds.

 

[m1match]

For NRA Highpower I dial wind for slow fire because we've got so much time, but for precision rifle I hold for wind because you never have 20 minutes for 20 shots. The wind where I shoot is rarely steady and in matches with multiple targets, at multiple ranges it's easier and quicker to hold for wind. I've seen people dial a base correction for wind and then forget what they dialed while they were shooting, or they were in a hurry and they dialed the wrong way, or any number of things to mess up their performance. By holding for wind, I only need to think about what is the wind doing at the time I need to shoot.

Both ways work well but holding works better for me.

 

[_Windrider_]

Dial steady state wind and hold the changes.

 

[m1match]

Whatever you do, pick one way, learn it, practice it, and stick with it. If you try to do hold for wind some of the time and dial for wind some of the time, you will probably not have consistently good results.

 

[edub1309]

Due to having to “read” the wind it seems like holding is much easier and quicker as it can be changed. Otherwise if your wind call is a bit off you may find yourself both dialing and holding which won’t do much good.