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What traits of a range make one side better?

davidjoe

An experimental gun with experimental ammunition
Gold $$ Contributor
This assumes there are differences, of course, but what things make for good lane assignment?
 
Wind patterns in front of the firing line for the first say 100 yards. If there are dirt mounds on the side of the range they will either block and/or swirl the prevailing wind. That can be very difficult if not impossible to pattern.

Come to Manatee 600 and we can show you. You are better off in the middle of the range.
 
Something Jeff Gates taught me a few years back at a certain range.
Trees lining the right side of the range are a blocking force and the
wind comes tumbling back. Shooters on the far left can read a steady
wind where the shooters on right have flags switching constantly.
I have set out wind socks to show this. Wind sock at 200 on left side
is moving to point to the trees. Windsock between the trees and far
right bench, favors pointing away and twitchy.......It's nuts.
 
Looking at this illustration, it would appear that a windbreak actually accelerates the wind that is going over it, faster than the prevailing wind speed.

The measurement after the barrier is interesting, the shadow is longer relative to the height of the barrier than I’d have thought.

If the barrier is lower than your arc, like the side berms at Ben Avery, you may shoot into the fastest local wind there is for several hundred yards at the top of travel, then fall down into the slowest local wind there is.

If the barrier is taller than your arc, it looks like the wind speed you’ll be shooting in is only about 60% of the speed of the leeward side.
 

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It has seemed to me that a let up can catch the whole line, on basically the same shot, even though they may be hundreds of feet apart from each other.

On the other hand, a build can be watched making its way across the line, for 40 seconds or more, raising one flag after another, as at the Connaught Ranges with its many lines of flags down range.

I’m not certain why there is not more symmetry in the two, if this is right.
 
You can have a Range like Ridgway Pa. You have rotational winds
most of the day and that rotation is moving to different paths. Your
looking at shooting thru two walls of wind that are going in different
directions. Or that rotation may have moved where your shooting thru
an edge. One coming towards you, and the other side, going away.
It's a very tough place to shoot. Petey on here can explain it better.


Other then that, the other problem is having your neighbor break
wind, screwing up your hold......
 
SMOKE BOMBS.....set off a few smoke bombs at the range in question. You won't learn a damn thing other than be amazed at how well we (well some of youse) do shoot in that wind stuff and other conditions thrown at us when given a finite time to fire (AKA "competition").
 
Looking at this illustration, it would appear that a windbreak actually accelerates the wind that is going over it, faster than the prevailing wind speed.

The measurement after the barrier is interesting, the shadow is longer relative to the height of the barrier than I’d have thought.

If the barrier is lower than your arc, like the side berms at Ben Avery, you may shoot into the fastest local wind there is for several hundred yards at the top of travel, then fall down into the slowest local wind there is.

If the barrier is taller than your arc, it looks like the wind speed you’ll be shooting in is only about 60% of the speed of the leeward side.
Show that with the opposite wind.
 
From my research:
For dense shelterbelts with little through-flow, winds are reduced greatly near the windbreak, but wind speed fully recovers downwind about 15 times the height of the trees. More open shelter belts, e.g., thick shrubbery and single tree rows, allow more through-flow so wind speed is reduced less near the trees, but wind speed fully recovers downwind about 30 times the height of the impediment. Wind speed in both cases also is reduced upwind for a distance equal to 3 to 4 times the height of the impediment.
 
At Camp Perry , little end of the Viale range has a fence and a tree line on the west side. First 10-15 firing points are like a tunnel with a west wind. As noted about Firing point 20-40 it rolls and swirls with that wind and then evens out the last 100 firing points.
 
Show that with the opposite wind.

By "arc," I assume you mean trajectory, specifically maximum ordinate.

Again from my note:
Considering the target shooting environment being discussed the measured wind speed must be greater than 10mph or distance >1000yards to warrant an upper-level wind speed increase greater than 1mph for the maximum ordinate “segment” (~300 yards). Probably not worth the extra time to calculate, i.e., within the noise of other variables.
 
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just speaking from my own experience. I prefer the bench I have the most wins from past matches
Ronnie
and yes I understand the question but ranges tend to change honey holes from match to match and even relay to relay just gotta make the most out of the cards your delt
 
Just an aside. A range I am familiar with has some relays and benches I have friends swear you must be on to win. So I went back 3 years and looked at all the matches and relays.....they all full of it.I even pointed it out to 2 of them,lol. Doesn't matter the record, they know the truth.
 

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