Wind flags are for dummies

[Intheshop]

Well,not really.But,for those lucky folks with private ranges.....

Build a good smokey little campfire.Now grab a few smoldering logs....drop them at intervals just as you would with flags.May have to move/kick them out of the line of sight...doh.It's much more,"real time".Good shooting,BW

 

[Maven]

A sharpened dowel (~ 3 ft. in length) with a pc. of surveyor's tape stapled or tacked to the top also works. If you want to get fancy, use a fishing snap swivel through the tape so it doesn't get tangled. One at 25 yd. and another at 50 work for 100 yd. shooting. (Eliminate the 50 yd. one if 50 yd. is the max. distance.)

 

[300BLK]

Pay attention to the wind on your face. What you're feeling impacts the bullet as soon as it leaves the muzzle, so will have an affect downrange.

 

[fiver]

I just tied ribbons down the barbwire fence separating the silhouette range from the rifle range.
then tacked one on the edges of the target frames.

most of my rifles are sighted in about 4 clicks to the right because of the prevailing wind here.

 

[Intheshop]

Getting the cheapy wind meter off fleabay has been one of the better 15$ spent on the craft of shooting.

First off,like a chrono....it puts actual numbers on things.This one is like a playskool model compared to a Kestrel.But,does have a cpl functions.

So,have been paying MUCH more attention to the wind.Like you-all,got the ribbons/surveyor tape and sticks.They work up to a point and are better than nothing.Looking at how they get used at a BR match,there's a sea of them.You can see conditions coming and going.It was this notion,as I sat watching a small burn pile the other day......along with the new mattel wind meter..that it hit me.Smoke does a better job than a wind flag.

A discussion on the weeb suffers because it lacks inflection and keys of speach that get across the point.That's what's wrong with typical windflags/daisy wheels....they lack inflection.The smoke has obvious "issues",but the premise is sound.It gives a better 3-D representation of the wind.Just watch some smoke when you are making small burn piles this spring.

 

[fiver]

smoke would work pretty well but our range is on the approach to the little airport here.
I don't know how well it would go over.

I have the Kestrel wind meter with the temp gage and wind chill conversion built in.
it gives me a wind speed to base what I'm seeing the flags doing.
it generally gives me an idea of hold in and by watching the flags I can gauge the speed and direction from there.
I just want to know what I'm dealing with.
I'm not shooting in the .1's.