Wind Strategies for Long Range Shooting

July 17, 2015

Sent in from John Tate. I guess we’ll file this one under “there’s more than one way to skin a cat.” If something is “wrong”, but the results are there, then it isn’t wrong. The great thing about competitive shooting is providing objective, empirical measure to sort out what idea(s) actually work.

Connecting with the Wind Or Surfing F-Class
by Larry Bartholome

The range I shoot on allows me to shoot out to 1,000 yards, but it has NO flags, no pits and I don’t even try to read the wind. I let the bullets go where they may while testing, but I try to test in good conditions. I am mainly concerned with the elevation of loads. Since I don’t get any practice and shoot few matches I haven’t developed the habit of watching flags, etc.

So….what do I do to win as much as I do? As I wrote before, I basically chase the spotter. I try to connect with the wind since I know I can’t read it. I use the word “connect” because when I am connected (i.e. in the zone!) I can see mirage changes pretty well. If I become unconnected due to a distraction of any kind I have lost the wind connection and usually points.

Of course I am watching what indicators I can while “chasing”. I try to note what the mirage looks like and file it away in my mind’s eye. Of course here comes that old memory problem, da. I keep my eye in my rifle scope as much as I can while the target is in the pits. I don’t use a spotting scope and I don’t plot shots. That is too distracting for me.

John Tate
Jul 17, 2015 @ 07:40:47

I just forwarded anticipating a greater mind than mine could assess its contents.

My experience and those of others with whom I’ve worked consider chasing the spotter to be a near mortal error. But, if this guy can use it for his ‘wind dummy,’ so be it.

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John M. Buol Jr.
Jul 17, 2015 @ 07:42:38

I’m certainly not this “greater mind”, especially regarding long range shooting and wind calling. And I’m sometimes doing no better than spotter chasing myself. I wasn’t being judgmental, especially because that fellow is a much better long range shooter than I, just saying this isn’t the norm. Spotter chasing is pretty limiting during CMP and other no-sighter events.

John Tate
Jul 17, 2015 @ 07:43:09

Here’s an idea on the F-Class shooter and his wind doping techniques. No joke here, I’m serious.
((Remember, I’m strictly an iron sight guy.))

These F-Class guys shoot with bipods and scopes, right?

Well, the scope may be his savior.

On the very rare occasions when I’ve shot long range with a scoped rifle, the bump of pulse and any other faint wiggle drove me crazy. Likewise, if there was any mirage, it made my sight picture a bit weird.

I never thought of it … but what if I had backed my focus to 1/3 to 1/2 the distance from the target (that is, 400 yds for a 600 yard line). I could still see the target, but I’d also have constant mirage readings without moving my head to the spotting scope.

Maybe this is part of what the fellow does?

Just a rambling thought.

John M. Buol Jr.
Jul 17, 2015 @ 07:48:28

Getting a quality rifle optic at magnification similar to a good spotting scope would help. I’d be hesitant to back off focus to better see mirage due to possible (probable…) point of impact errors due to parallax. With a high-enough magnification and a heavy rifle mounted on a bipod I’d think you’d see mirage pretty well without focus change.

Colorado Pete
Jul 18, 2015 @ 00:17:11

Now that is a bit funny. That is pretty much what I ended up doing in highpower. The flags were often useless (six flags pointing in 4 or 5 different directions), but I’d read the mirage as best as possible and try to remember its condition and the windage clicks I had from each prior shot. Unfortunately my memory is only about 2% better than Larry’s. Took a while to learn but eventually I managed to do OK.

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