Sighting in when it's windy

[RAG]

I'm curious what tips and trick ya'll have found to work best for sighting in when it's windy. I'm thinking mostly about colony varmint shooting, and after while you need to re-check zero...or when you switch barrels, etc., and need to sight in. The wind always seems to be whipp'n in the prairie dog towns and sage rat fields (in the afternoons anyhow), making it challenging to sight in. Do you put the target at 12 o'clock in the wind, or 3/9 o'clock? I've actually gone through the trouble of setting up a target into the wind, and and at 45 degrees, out at 100 yards.

I actually think I might try sighting in at 50 yards next time (but with 100 yard zero, knowing that the wind will have much less of a factor. So last time at the range, I took a few of my rifles, checked zero at 100 yd, and then shot target at 50 yard to see how low they impact. My Mach IV at 4,275fps was 1.1" low, whereas my 6BR at 3,900fps was .875. I figure I'll pre-mark some of my sight-in targets with an "x" 1" below bull for reference. I don't know, I haven't actually implemented this method yet...just seemed like a good idea.

 

[Kracken McGraw]

I would do the 12 o’clock deal and figure a little left or right wind compensation.

 

[K22]

I never sight in on windy days because I use the sight in as the baseline scope setting. If you don't have a baseline, it's difficult to make adjustment based on environmental change.

However, I will purposely go to the range and shoot on windy days (10 to 25 mph) to learn my ability to read the wind, adjust to it and study the results. The problem is of course, many times the wind is not blowing in a constant direction, it swirls, and it ebbs and flows.

Of course, when I'm hunting, I try to time the shot during a lull in the wind but that isn't always possible. Also limiting the range of the shot can help

Since I don't hunt in windy days where the sustained winds are over 25 mph, I don't go to the range on those days to practice.

However, if I was going to travel for special hunt, I might change that practice because once you arrive, you have to hunt regardless of the conditions since you've invested the time and money for the hunt, and you may only have a limited time on this hunt.

However, in competition all that goes out the window. You have shoot no matter the conditions and under the constraints of time and fixed distances. But having a zero or near zero wind scope setting baseline give you a reference to make adjustments.

 

[mongo chicago]

Sight in on the calmest day possible BEFORE the hunt. Compensate from there.

 

[5spd]

I sight in when wind is barley moving to insure my 100yd dead on.
When on pdogs it's usually 5to20mph and I try to set truck so wind is at my back or in my face.
Adjusting for crosswords is easy, many, many times I'm on target just waiting for a second of low cross breeze.
Other times I'm holding 1to4 moa in heavy winds.

 

[RAG]

Right, I too sight in before trip, and in the calmest possible conditions. However, as I mentioned, I'll switch barrels in the field,,,or find that (for whatever reason) after a couple hundred rounds down the tube, I need some minor adjustment to zero. Or, I sight in before trip, but when I get there I'll have a gun that doesn't seem to be zeroed precisely (if I knew why, I'd fix it). So, for one reason or another, I have to sign in on prairie dog shoots, and it's almost always windy.

 

[RAG]

I sight in when wind is barley moving to insure my 100yd dead on.
When on pdogs it's usually 5to20mph and I try to set truck so wind is at my back or in my face.
Adjusting for crosswords is easy, many, many times I'm on target just waiting for a second of low cross breeze.
Other times I'm holding 1to4 moa in heavy winds.

Bingo, yeah...I think I'll plan on doing exactly that...putting wind at my 12, and then I'm also going to sight in at 50 yards instead of 100, when the wind is really ripp'n! It'll remove more of the variable (wind) on my impact point!