the wind is my bane, any wind guru's out there?

[rockwind1]

so i've been shooting my rem 308 pss a lot lately, out to 960 yds. using lake city m118LR although i have federal gold match 168 and federal gold seirra 175. honestly, they all seem to shoot about the same to me. but that is not the question.

last couple days, shooting in gusty conditions 6-20 mph with gusts to 30. i can't seem to get that first shot hit out past 700 in these conditions. 600 or less, much better at it, although i have only really started shooting about 2 weeks ago.

i mean, i am not just guessing, i have a kestrel and i log my data for the most part and understand full value and half value and but dang, these gusty winds are bugging me!

my optics are a nightforce atacr mil/mil.

but if anyone can do it out past that with a 308, would you mind sharing any advice? thanks in advance.

shooting steel, 14" round to 18" round out to 740 then 18" wide by 42" high rectangle at 885 and 960.

another weird thing, at 100 yds, the lake city M118LR is perfectly centered, when i shoot the federal gold 168, it groups 1/2" to the left. i have the gun sighted in for the M118LR obviously, cause i have a lot of it.

i read an article talking about a very wide ES on the lake city stuff but I have had no problems with it, anyone else use it much ?

 

[Ray Gross]

See if this helps:

 

[Rtheurer]

Not sure the video above is going to help you much. Its more about how to Bracket wind for shooting strings of 20 shots. Not First round hits on Steel.
However. If you expecting 1st shot hits on Steel with a 308 at distances beyond 700 yards with wind that is as Variable as 6MPH to 20MPH with gusts to 30MPH..... Not sure what you are to expect. 700 yards with a full value wind is 84" of wind drift and if it just's to 30mph its a 126" of wind drif in a full value. Not to mention the wind buffering the shooter and gun always on the down wind side...
Your expectations might be a little high for the extreme's listed above. I want to applaud you however for getting out there and learning your limits. and Practicing in those conditions. You will only learn more and more by shooting conditions that say are not so nice. Good for you.
Russel

 

[Ray Gross]

That is a fair point Russ, but just sitting down and bracketing the wind and then identifying the condition you want to shoot in, will go a long way towards improving the the hit ratio.

Now if the goal is making the shot on demand, regardless of the conditions at that particular moment, especially the conditions described by the OP, you probably want a spotter who can read wind.

 

[rockwind1]

thanks! will watch video, one of my questions was "are there people that can do this?", ie: read the wind so well that they can figure out the dope and usually make the hit. if this is something fairly hard to do, than that is a different story. i thought there were folks out there that could do and do it reasonably well.

I've read that (some folks) who reload say they don't get much better than federal gmm Es. is this true?

 

[Rtheurer]

That is a fair point Russ, but just sitting down and bracketing the wind and then identifying the condition you want to shoot in, will go a long way towards improving the the hit ratio.

Now if the goal is making the shot on demand, regardless of the conditions at that particular moment, especially the conditions described by the OP, you probably want a spotter who can read wind.

Very true. And by the way I am heard in the background of that video talking about Time Cycle.

 

[Rtheurer]

thanks! will watch video, one of my questions was "are there people that can do this?", ie: read the wind so well that they can figure out the dope and usually make the hit. if this is something fairly hard to do, than that is a different story. i thought there were folks out there that could do and do it reasonably well.

I've read that (some folks) who reload say they don't get much better than federal gmm Es. is this true?

Its not easy. And it takes ALOT of trigger time in those types of conditions and at that distance. Not all that common for folks to develop those skills. So no its not all that common to make hits at that range. Its good to see what your limits are and I am glad your out testing those limits. 30MPH Gusts is pretty ugly. Unless you get it to 1/4 Value or less in direction, The pure velocity makes it tough. Of Course I have had my arse kicked on a simple 10MPH wind that is coming from 6:00 and fishtailing from 5:00 to 7:00 as well so then there is that. It takes years to learn. I have an advantage of having the Msgt Anderson as my Team Mate who is in the Video. Learning curve is shorter that way.
Not sure about your last comment? Are you asking if the 308 can get better Extreme Velocity Spread better than Federal Gold Medal?