Reading the wind

If you can pick up the string all the way to the target....you should never miss. Sight down the string...it will tell you everything you need to know.

Mike

Here is a cheat sheet:

I have an inclinometer/level on the front of my scope. I pull the target string over the level and hold it in my left hand while in position. This puts the string so my left eye can look down it as I get ready to shoot. As I break the trigger I let go of the string. It takes a lot of practice before it becomes easy.

The first time you look down the string and see it bowed into an S shape... you will understand the value of its information.

The beauty of the string is that it doesn't care about the angle that the wind is blowing. There is no angular math needed to calculate drift. The amount of bow in the string directly correlates to the hold distance because the string bow is vectored the same as your pellet. A 45 degree angle of the wind will push the string bow about 70% as far as the same velocity that is at 90 degrees. Same as a pellet.

Mike

I feel i read the wind just as good as i read Cuneiform

Was visiting my son at his new place this past weekend out in the desert (Twentynine Palms, CA). Wind was crazy. Dead calm for 10 minutes, 20-30mph "gusts" for 10 minutes all through morning & afternoon. I was surprised at how well I could group on my 4" metal gong @ 100 yards with my FX Boss. I just intuitively felt what I should do. About 85% of shots on target when wind was blowing. Don't know if I could even explain, technically, what I was doing. Always been a holdover/under hunting shooter & was using my favorite gun. Guess I should have tried to take notes. Big difference though between "minute of squirrel or rabbit head" & a competition target!

+1 for the string.

Another thing that I find helpful is waiting for the wind to blow from a direction and speed that I have confidence on reading that day. This confidence could come from getting a sense of it in sight in. Or, perhaps from a couple of far taget knock downs on the first couple of lanes. I find that, if I can be patient, and really work with all of the time on the clock, I can usually wait for the wind to be the way I want it. Usually, that's the prevailing wind direction of the day. I find that when the wind switches and blows from the non-prevailing direction, it tends to be more funky and less predictable.

cavedweller said:

What I’m hoping to create is a discussion about how different people successfully read wind speed to adjust their POA around the KZ. This is a huge part of improving someones score.

Seems like there are a crazy amount of variables. In my backyard alone the wind has weird swirling and shifting patterns that make successfully calling a shot a real challenge. I’m considering throwing out smoke grenades; but seriously …

Are you relying on grass movement?
Your windicator attached to your gun?

what’s your method ??

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I have indicators and flags. I've tried and tried with no success of reading winds making consistant shots hitting centers. So,I've adjusted my gun ,pellets weight,speed,and form of shooting to just about take wind out of the process. I've speed my pellets up and use heavier pellets to buck the wind better. I've changed the twist rate to what I believe does best when it's windy and for me to shoot under a 225 the wind has to be above 8mph. This is a target I shot some months back in 4mph winds. I aimed center every shot. There's 25 shots here in a row. When it's really windy,all a person can do is make guesses from past experience. I've learned that to guess every shot instead of just shooting off the shot before,I've scored alot better targets shooting off the sighter or shot before,and when in doubt,burn a pellet,before a 3inch miss happens. The sighters are there,use them.

Hunter25 said:

I have indicators and flags. I've tried and tried with no success of reading winds making consistant shots hitting centers. So,I've adjusted my gun ,pellets weight,speed,and form of shooting to just about take wind out of the process. I've speed my pellets up and use heavier pellets to buck the wind better. I've changed the twist rate to what I believe does best when it's windy and for me to shoot under a 225 the wind has to be above 8mph. This is a target I shot some months back in 4mph winds. I aimed center every shot. There's 25 shots here in a row. When it's really windy,all a person can do is make guesses from past experience. I've learned that to guess every shot instead of just shooting off the shot before,I've scored alot better targets shooting off the sighter or shot before,and when in doubt,burn a pellet,before a 3inch miss happens. The sighters are there,use them.

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This is a field target section post. Nothing you have said applies to ft.

I will be the first to say, I don't have a lot of knowledge when it comes to shooting air rifles. Mr. Thomas's remarks on using strings did ring my bell. I spent a good portion of my 75 years racing sail boats. Wind is never constant. It is always moving in direction and speed. A simple test. Take a piece of yarn and tape it to a piece of flat cardboard and place it at 45 degrees from the wind direction. The yarn should move up and down ( direction ) and lay flat against the cardboard or drop ( speed ). The yarn are called tell tails. You might find it helpful to google sailing - using tell tails.

Nattboy said:

I will be the first to say, I don't have a lot of knowledge when it comes to shooting air rifles. Mr. Thomas's remarks on using strings did ring my bell. I spent a good portion of my 75 years racing sail boats. Wind is never constant. It is always moving in direction and speed. A simple test. Take a piece of yarn and tape it to a piece of flat cardboard and place it at 45 degrees from the wind direction. The yarn should move up and down ( direction ) and lay flat against the cardboard or drop ( speed ). The yarn are called tell tails. You might find it helpful to google sailing - using tell tails.

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I grew up sailing, and use what I learned there about major and minor wind movements helps tremendously when making wind calls. I have a video on my YouTube channel showing the wind moving down a bluff covered in dune grass, then down onto a harbor. The rippling water shows how the wind moves in blocks, and how the wind moves inside those blocks with no structure to interfere. This help to visualize timing and direction.
While it's not a perfect representation of the wind moving through the woods, or a field with obstructions, it's a great place to start understanding the winds tendencies.

However, if you find yourself shooting above 6,000 at the bottom of a steep canyon, it's not going to help.

humbled.ag said:

I grew up sailing, and use what I learned there about major and minor wind movements helps tremendously when making wind calls. I have a video on my YouTube channel showing the wind moving down a bluff covered in dune grass, then down onto a harbor.

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I wish we could have water to read the wind at FT events!! Watching the wind on the water when sailing is an amazing/mesmerizing thing.

I have an idea!! Let's damn and fill Horse Canyon and shoot across the water!!! LOL

Mike has a great wind calculating article.

cavedweller said:

I need to set our some AZ sage and let it smolder or get squadded with a smoker/vapor so I can watch their bi-product smoke rings float around. Hoping to try the strings this weekend

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For years they use a bottle of talc of baby powder to judge the wind in WFTF, I believe they banned the use of it in the last few years. It acts a lot like smoke. I use a collapsable antenna on a scope ring level and a piece of cassette tape and 8-track tape (the 8-track is a little heavier than the cassette tape). I lost a shoot off at the Nats due to not having anything to read the wind on my rig, now I always have something and a backup.

JW. said:

I wish we could have water to read the wind at FT events!! Watching the wind on the water when sailing is an amazing/mesmerizing thing.

I have an idea!! Let's damn and fill Horse Canyon and shoot across the water!!! LOL

Mike has a great wind calculating article.

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Mike and I talked for a bit about wind reading on my first trip to Battle Mt. I'm a read by feel type. I use my wind flag to measure intensity, and the environment for direction. It isn't always great when on a new course, or when encountering shrubs that don't even shimmy in anything under 10mph. When I'm in these situations, the string works as well, if not better than nature.

I have no idea what the rules are but if you in a pinch wet the windward side of your face with a little water and you will feel a cool pressure moving up and down your cheek. If you are down wind wet the back of your neck. No B S, we would do that when racing in light air.