How Much Does Wind Really Affect Grouping

[Funnybucker]

How much should wind really affect grouping with a 177 rifle at 23 mtrs .......

My garden is surrounded by fence and I'm shooting from below the fence line (everybody comments on how sheltered it seems there) and granted it's been very windy generally over the last few months but should it really affect your POI that much at such a relatively short distance??????

[madcarlos]

How much should wind really affect grouping with a 177 rifle at 23 mtrs .......

My garden is surrounded by fence and I'm shooting from below the fence line (everybody comments on how sheltered it seems there) and granted it's been very windy generally over the last few months but should it really affect your POI much at much at such a relatively short distance??????

Yes really. It could blow the pellet and possibly the gun even without noticing, 22cal as much as 177.

[Jonjon79]

On wet and windy days I shoot from the worktop, just inside the kitchen, at targets in the back of the shed. The pellets cross 27yrds of open ground.

My back garden is about 10yrds wide with 6ft fences either side. When we set off some fireworks last November, I could really see how the wind hits my garden and spirals along it.

Unless the wind is really bad, it doesn't seem to have much effect on my .177s. However, when I shoot a similar distance at the local club, over an open range, it is more noticeable.

[angrybear]

Can't comment on your garden but a side wind will not only move the pellet sideways it will also either hold it up or push it down depending on whether it's with or against the spin.

as it seldom blows a steady speed any fluctuations will have either greater or lesser effect on specific shots so will open your grouping.

[Rich]

A 10mph side wind will typically open out your group size to 30mm, if it's a gusting wind. And the more shots you shoot, the bigger the group will likely be.

[Funnybucker]

Cheers for the comments, whilst it's not realistically possible it'd be brilliant if you could have a tracer on them and a camera that you could slo mo and test it on a day with no wind and one with lots of wind in different scenarios like open field with cross wind and straight into wind which probably has a greater effect than one might think, then sheltered garden ie below fence lines on the same day and then no wind ....... be quite interesting to see just how much of an effect it has in all the different scenarios

I would have thought gusting is probably the worst as there's no consistency.

[FPoole]

I can deal with the wind blowing the pellet sideways, but you also have the wind moving your body as well. I find that I struggle holding steady far more than the pellet being blown off. You can take a position and aim only to find your leaning into the breeze. If the breeze changes a bit, you will sway off aim badly.

[Rich]

This is true, and FT rigs tend to be tall and catch the wind like a sail.

[ballisticboy]

Cheers for the comments, whilst it's not realistically possible it'd be brilliant if you could have a tracer on them and a camera that you could slo mo and test it on a day with no wind and one with lots of wind in different scenarios like open field with cross wind and straight into wind which probably has a greater effect than one might think, then sheltered garden ie below fence lines on the same day and then no wind ....... be quite interesting to see just how much of an effect it has in all the different scenarios

I would have thought gusting is probably the worst as there's no consistency.

Trouble is the tracer would fundamentally affect the way the pellet behaved in the wind and so would not tell you how a normal pellet behaved.
I have some records showing measured wind speeds taken every second. At 30 yards with a 10 second gap between two shots the wind can alter the POI by about 0.7 inch and at 50 yards the change is up to 1.75 inches. The data was not taken on a particularly windy day.

[Artfull-Bodger]

All you need is a few wind flags, bamboo stick set at 45 degrees with some wool on it suffices, if you put a few of these round your garden you would be surprised how the fences actually cause the wind to be channelled in odd directions, what you think is a light breeze can be quite a suprise when its lifting or diverting near fences, you can then get some idea how much wind deflection at a particular range correlates to wind strength.

[archie]

Trouble is over say 50 yards the wind can vary every few yards, it is not blowing at a consistant speed throughout the 50 yards. This is why it is very interesting to put flags up every 5 yards. I was very surprised when we did this on the club 50 yard range. In a reasonable cross wind pellets can be blown off by as much as 3". another problem is the effect of fences on both or even one side of the range.
I think judging the effect of the wind on pellets even at 25 yards can be sometimes down to luck, which is why some of these characters who shoot vermin at up to 70-80 yards need to look again at their shooting practices.

[Hsing-ee]

At an HFT shoot one time I was just finishing the release on a trigger-press and one of the other blokes in our scoring team let out a massive percussive fart in the style of an MG42 burning through 250 rounds.

I missed.

Not sure if it counts as psychological, chemical or biological warfare. It's cheating though, making people drop points by farting hard.

Like this but in his jeans.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uhOrY88MGbM

[steeleye]

If you eat a lot of beans! it can

[Rickenbacker]

Illinois Nazis...

[magnummike]

I find that if I keep getting wind while trying to shoot groups I pack in for a toilet break and shotgun the pan rather than the target