I really got humbled this afternoon by the wind. Went 4 for 12 on a 16-18" plate at 650 yards that ordinarily presents no difficulty. 6.5 CM with 15x magnification.
There seemed to be three components to the prevailing wind:
-a fairly steady wind from about 9 o'clock that seemed like about 8-10 mph;
-a wind coming down the canyon from beyond the targets that seemed about 2 o'clock (seemed light but very hard for me to estimate, only could detect from a piece of streamer tied to a bush and effect on splashes);
-sporadic ferocious gusts from about 11 o'clock, probably 30 mph or more (enough to make the sand sting your face).
Shooting location is sort of a little valley or canyon, not shooting across a draw.
I shot a little at 100, 200, and 300 yards without much difficulty by firing during lulls between the big gusts. This did not work so well at 650 yards.
I tried holding a little off the left edge of the plate, thinking that the predominant effects on wind drift would come from the obvious 9 o'clock wind, and I could gauge its relative strength from the mirage, and thus try to time my shots to similar states of wind. This bought me a couple of hits, and my misses were less than a half mil to the right of the target. Hold a little farther left however and I would miss barely left of the target. Every few shots some gusts would come through and force me to wait for calmer conditions.
At this point I am not sure whether, by concentrating on my hold I neglected to appreciate a decrease in the magnitude of the 9 o'clock wind as told by mirage, or whether I should have been paying attention to something else.
How would you guys deal with wind in this kind of situation? For me it was confusing trying to figure out the multiple wind components.
There seemed to be three components to the prevailing wind:
-a fairly steady wind from about 9 o'clock that seemed like about 8-10 mph;
-a wind coming down the canyon from beyond the targets that seemed about 2 o'clock (seemed light but very hard for me to estimate, only could detect from a piece of streamer tied to a bush and effect on splashes);
-sporadic ferocious gusts from about 11 o'clock, probably 30 mph or more (enough to make the sand sting your face).
Shooting location is sort of a little valley or canyon, not shooting across a draw.
I shot a little at 100, 200, and 300 yards without much difficulty by firing during lulls between the big gusts. This did not work so well at 650 yards.
I tried holding a little off the left edge of the plate, thinking that the predominant effects on wind drift would come from the obvious 9 o'clock wind, and I could gauge its relative strength from the mirage, and thus try to time my shots to similar states of wind. This bought me a couple of hits, and my misses were less than a half mil to the right of the target. Hold a little farther left however and I would miss barely left of the target. Every few shots some gusts would come through and force me to wait for calmer conditions.
At this point I am not sure whether, by concentrating on my hold I neglected to appreciate a decrease in the magnitude of the 9 o'clock wind as told by mirage, or whether I should have been paying attention to something else.
How would you guys deal with wind in this kind of situation? For me it was confusing trying to figure out the multiple wind components.
