Thread: Do You Know Your Wind?

Originally Posted by Tussock

The formulas and the outputs from the ballistics calculator are just the starting point.

Im at the point where I have realized there are no quick fixes. Its an art not a science. If you have a flat range with wind flags the whole way then you can use a bit of math and quantify things from the flags.

But in nature, wind behaves like water in a river. Its like telling a fisherman or a jetboater there is an equation to read the water. Of course there is not. It takes time and practice to learn the swirls and eddies and where things will funnel in or spread out and slow down. A fisherman who knows a river well will look at a fast flowing turbulent section and know from experience that there will be quiet water at the bottom holding fish. Reading wind is that much harder because its invisible.

You quantify your math, test it somewhere consistent then get out and practice. Fire, and see what happens. Miss, and figure out why. Is there a powerful breeze tearing over that ridge half way down range? Is my projectile traveling through zero wind effect as the wind is turned down range by that hill side?

Only way to learn. And the more rounds you fire, the more you find out you don't know.

Learnt a heap about how.water moves when it hits an obstacle when i started kayaking. Observed it all a heap when fishing but when you start kayaking you really learn...catching the wrong rail and ending up updide down helps seal the lesson....
Seeing how eddies etc off a big obstacle cause opposite direction currents helps explain how wind shifts over obstacles and blows oppossite direction in places