Wind direction

[stello1001]

Does wing blowing towards your target, or completely against the bullet (towards shooter) affect POI? Specifically, I was wondering if it can cause a high or low hit, not left and right.

I only ask because I almost never ever get a wind in such a direction but today it happened. At 450, I checked my DOPE, sent a round, had a dead center hit. Decided to send 4 more but those 4 all stacked over each other but just below the bullseye. Wind was coming towards me and I'm guessing my first round dead center hit managed to fly to my target at the perfect time where the wind paused.

I also have a brand new lot of ammo so it could be that there was a small variation. I dialed 2/10s more on my elevation and was pretty good. So I did two 5 rounds groups, or one 10 round group at 450 and it looks like this:

For reference, target is 12x12.

I stretched out to 700 but my wind direction changed and caused my target to almost be sideways, I was engaging at it while it was @ a 45 degree to me and still managed to hit with boring regularity. Really fun and positive range session today.

I had built that last minute shitty stand one day because I knew I wasn't ever going to be doing much shooting. By now though, that has changed. I'll try to weld together some thing that'll keep my target in place...

Thank you fellow hide members...

 

[308pirate]

It's you, not the wind.....

 

[stello1001]

It's you, not the wind.....

I really don't doubt it lol. I just had to ask though, I became really curious about it when I realized the wind was blowing completely towards me...

Thanks...

 

[308pirate]

I really don't doubt it lol. I just had to ask though, I became really curious about it when I realized the wind was blowing completely towards me...

Thanks...

Where were you shooting? Seems like a sweet setup.

 

[stello1001]

Where were you shooting? Seems like a sweet setup.

This is at my deer lease (south Texas) but out of respect to the other hunters here, I only practice when they're not around. Aside from making sure they're not around, the property owner doesn't like it when I'm out shooting, so I need to be sure he's not around as well.

I got lucky today though, I spotted him driving away from the property when I was only about 400 yards to the gate, he had just left...

Here is a screenshot (from a quick vid i took)of what it looks like more less. This from 450 yards but I can back up to maybe 1300 ish yards...

 

[roaring80sgun]

stello1001, you mentioned you had a new lot of ammo. Do you have a chronograph such as a Lab Radar or a MagnetoSpeed to get the velocity readings on the new ammo to see how consistent it is (Avg FPS, SD, and ES)? Also, do you use a ballistics solver (Applied Ballistics, Shooter, Ballistics AE, etc.)? Play around with one of those and input different wind speeds and directions for your load and see what results you get with a head wind versus a tail wind. Also, don't forget to factor in spin drift for your rifle and round. I know my 6.5 CM has about .2 Mil hold left at 700 yards, so I know I need to factor that in to my solution depending on what the wind happens to be doing.

 

[stello1001]

stello1001, you mentioned you had a new lot of ammo. Do you have a chronograph such as a Lab Radar or a MagnetoSpeed to get the velocity readings on the new ammo to see how consistent it is (Avg FPS, SD, and ES)? Also, do you use a ballistics solver (Applied Ballistics, Shooter, Ballistics AE, etc.)? Play around with one of those and input different wind speeds and directions for your load and see what results you get with a head wind versus a tail wind. Also, don't forget to factor in spin drift for your file and round. I know my 6.5 CM has about .2 Mil hold left at 700 yards, so I know I need to factor that in to my solution depending on what the wind happens to be doing.

I use ballisticARC just so I can get an idea of what my drops will look like. Usually though, I prefer to shoot at distances and figure that out for myself. I find that ballisticARC is typically off a few tenths the further out I shoot.

I do not shoot competitively nor do I reload so I have not yet decided to buy equipment that'll show me my MV.

I'll look further more into ballisticARC (never really played much with it aside from using it to gather ballpark drops) to see if it has an option for wind. I must say though, it was a dead calm day. Winds were maybe 3 to 4 mph.

 

[roaring80sgun]

I use ballisticARC just so I can get an idea of what my drops will look like. Usually though, I prefer to shoot at distances and figure that out for myself. I find that ballisticARC is typically off a few tenths the further out I shoot.

I do not shoot competitively nor do I reload so I have not yet decided to buy equipment that'll show me my MV.

I'll look further more into ballisticARC (never really played much with it aside from using it to gather ballpark drops) to see if it has an option for wind. I must say though, it was a dead calm day. Winds were maybe 3 to 4 mph.

Based on the wind you mentioned, that's not very much. Just a guess, but most likely the shifts were due to the ammo. Also, are you shooting prone and on a good rest or bipod? I've shot groups that varied elevation-wise under 500 yards like that due to an inferior bipod, bag/rest solution.

 

[stello1001]

Based on the wind you mentioned, that's not very much. Just a guess, but most likely the shifts were due to the ammo. Also, are you shooting prone and on a good rest or bipod? I've shot groups that varied elevation-wise under 500 yards like that due to an inferior bipod, bag/rest solution.

I'll admit, my bipod is probably not what many will consider to be decent, at least not for precision work. It's a Harris of some kind, I bought it used from here. Using a warhorse development bag to support the buttstock, shooting prone...

This is by far, the best shooting I have ever done, fundamentals-wise. I took my whole darn time to get setup, I remembered to position myself squared to the rifle, and took my sweet time looking down the scope to my target, made sure to slowly and gently pull the trigger & not jerking it at all. Actually really proud of myself today haha.

My first round hit dead center while the other 4 went slightly below. I actually don't doubt that as being me. I am far from being a great shooter and still think of myself as a "newbie" so maybe I pulled that first shot regardless on how good I felt on my fundamentals.

It could very well also be the bipod situation you are mentioning...

 

[roaring80sgun]

I'll admit, my bipod is probably not what many will consider to be decent, at least not for precision work. It's a Harris of some kind, I bought it used from here. Using a warhorse development bag to support the buttstock, shooting prone...

This is by far, the best shooting I have ever done, fundamentals-wise. I took my whole darn time to get setup, I remembered to position myself squared to the rifle, and took my sweet time looking down the scope to my target, made sure to slowly and gently pull the trigger & not jerking it at all. Actually really proud of myself today haha.

My first round hit dead center while the other 4 went slightly below. I actually don't doubt that as being me. I am far from being a great shooter and still think of myself as a "newbie" so maybe I pulled that first shot regardless on how good I felt on my fundamentals.

It could very well also be the bipod situation you are mentioning...

Yes, you should be proud of those shots. Another idea is to take a step back and bring it in closer to see how your rifle with that ammo groups at 100 yards. Maybe you already did this?

 

[Dthomas3523]

Head and tail wind only factor when some sort of land type does something that affects the wind direction or velocity.

The reason people seem to have issues with head and tail winds is because it’s almost never straight in either direction. Pretty easy for it to switch from say 6 o’clock to 7 o’clock and give you what seems like odd results.

 

[stello1001]

Yes, you should be proud of those shots. Another idea is to take a step back and bring it in closer to see how your rifle with that ammo groups at 100 yards. Maybe you already did this?

I did that yesterday...

Top two groups are factory Berger 140s. Needless to say, I will sell off whatever remaining ammo i have.

Bottom two groups are what I was using out today.

From the spark groups -

Left group has what looks to be a flier. I know I pulled left when I shot that group. Because it's in the black, I was not able to tell exactly where it impacted. The whole time, I thought it had impacted on the top left corner. To my surprise, it was on the top right corner, worked out better for me that way lol...

Right group also has what looks to be a flier. For whatever reason, I cannot remember this being me pulling the shot. Perhaps it was a true flier, perhaps I still need more practice.

I will say though, being able to focus on small targets @ 100 is WAAAYYYY more difficult, at least for me. I was having so much trouble seeing everything (reticle, target, target details) that my eye even lost focus of the horizontal stadia line.

Either way, both groups appear to be very acceptable, to me that is...