Wind Reading Notes

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  • DH Vidrine

    Well-Known Member
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    Jul 5, 2013
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    Prairieville, LA
    Wind Reading Notes

    I shoot high power rifle with iron sights and a sling so my approach to wind reading will be a little different than for an F-Class shooter.
    Develop your prone position, sight alignment, and trigger control so you can keep most of your shots in the ten-ring during no-wind conditions. Practice on a 100yd. reduced slow-fire prone target. This is essential. Wind reading is futile without consistent sight alignment, trigger control, and natural point of aim. Go no further until these skills are learned and honed. Shoot with people that do this well and learn from them.

    Maintain a true no-wind zero setting on your sight. Always keep track of the windage change on your sight. One simple way is to remember what change is on your sight. It helps to verbally say it to yourself each time you shoulder your rifle, “right two and one half, right two and one half.” If you forget what is on your sight you are lost. Count down the sight adjustment back to your no-wind zero and start over. Another way is to record your sight changes in your data book. The recording scheme that has worked well for me is to use a direction letter, R or L and two digits with a decimal point in between. The first digit is whole minuet of angle. The second digit is number of quarter minuets of angle. Example: left two and ¾ minuets = L2.3, Right ½ minuet = R0.2, and right one and ¼ minuet = R1.1. Either method will work. The best prone shooters save time by recording their sight changes to memory.

    Wind has both value and direction. Wind away (12:00) or in your face (6:00) has no value. Wind crossing at 3:00 or 9:00 has full value. All other directions are less than full value. Get a service rifle wind chart. As you get more proficient at wind reading you will be able to adapt the service rifle wind chart or make your own wind chart. I purchased every wind chart on the market and could not make any of them work so I made my own chart. Think of the wind in terms of minute of angle not in sight adjustment clicks. The target score rings are in multiples of minuet of angle. Sight adjustment clicks are in fractions of minute of angle. My wind chart was developed in ¼ minuet sight clicks. I now use this chart only for the wind call of my first shot at an unfamiliar range. Which flag should you watch most? It depends on the firing range and local conditions. At Palo Alto R&PC at Donaldsonville, LA I watch the flags that are 270 yd. from the targets. At that location the bullet is at its highest elevation of its path and almost as high as the flags. That flag seems to give me the best indication of wind value.

    Develop a wind reading strategy. Start observing conditions as soon as you reach the 600yd. firing line to score the shooter ahead of you. Focus your spotting scope on the grass at the 300yd. line. Watch the wind conditions while scoring. Watch both mirage and flags or trees. If clouds pass over or the wind increases to over 8 mph the mirage will be gone. You will be lost if you have not been watching the range flags and trees. Wind conditions repeat in cycles. Wind speed will rise slowly and drop suddenly. If a good shooter is next to you, watch the spotter on his target for missed wind changes. Listen, if you hear somebody on the firing line fuss & cuss don’t shoot. The wind just changed. Check the conditions again.

    The stronger the wind speed, the more constant it will be in both direction and value. A slight breeze that barely raises flags can be tricky. There will be sudden drops of wind speed. One tactic to counter this is to shoot on the safe side of the ten-ring. If the wind is from the right set your sight so you are in the ten-ring at 9:00. You will give up some X’s but if the wind drops you will you be in the ten-ring at 3:00 instead of 3:00 of the nine or eight-ring. The firing line at Bayou Rifles in Manville, TX faces north. In the summer months the wind is from behind the shooter. In the winter months the wind is in the shooter’s face. Sometimes the wind flags switch left and right every twenty to forty seconds. In this condition it is best to pick one prevailing direction over the other and only shoot with the wind from that direction.

    Develop a shooting procedure. Identify the prevailing condition. Study the conditions, judge speed and value, put wind correction on your sight. Shoot only in the prevailing condition. Keep a small electronic timer beside you to know how long you can wait for your favored condition to return. Do not shoot when the mirage is boiling (no wind) because the wind can switch quickly in either direction while you are off the spotting scope and setting up the next shot. After firing each shot immediately go to the spotting scope to see your target go down and see if the mirage changed since before you shot. Call your shot. Place a new cartridge on the magazine follower and write notes while the target is down. Go back to the spotting scope. When your marked target is raised check the shot location. If the shot is not on call determine the reason. Record your note and make sight change as needed. If the shot value is an X or hard ten and the wind conditions are unchanged do not waste time by writing in your data book or place fired brass on our ammunition box. Close the bolt and quickly shoulder your re-loaded rifle and shoot another X. You can catch up with your data book later in the string of fire. Return your sight to its no-wind zero when the string of fire is complete. Every string of fire should start with a new wind call from your no-wind zero.

    Warning, there will be days when the mirage and flags make no sense and the wind appears to be unreadable. It happens to the best of us. Try not to get frustrated and do not chase the spotter. Take a brief rest. Watch the target of a good shooter. Crank your sight back to its no-wind zero and start your wind reading process all over. If you hold hard and hang tough you will get it.

    Good books on wind reading:
    Service Rifle Marksmanship Guide – Civilian Marksmanship Program
    Prone and Long-Range Rifle Shooting – Nancy Thompkins
    The Wind Book for Rifle Shooters – Linda Miller & Keith Cunningham
    Reading the Wind and Coaching Techniques – Jim Owens

    I like shooting X’s best even though they taste like cardboard.
    I hope this helps, good luck, Dwayne Vidrine.
     

    Magnus

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    May 14, 2013
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    Good explanation. I've been a military firearms instructor for years and this is a very difficult concept for people to grasp, until, they spend a lot of primers and a lot of trigger time.
     

    tallwalker

    Well-Known Member
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    Jul 24, 2012
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    Covington, LA
    "The answer my friend... is blowin' in the wind." is what I sing in my head naturally while I shoot. Doesn't help at all in my case but it does remind me to pay attention. I have read all the books and seen all the videos. My favorite is "The Wind Book for Rifle Shooters" mentioned above. Extensive and understandable - great book.

    I do have the whole Jim Owens DVD set. If anyone would care to borrow them (with the promise I will get them back), I would be happy to share.
     
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