Read the Wind, Watch the Flags
I started target rifle shooting back in October last year, starting off with the club’s Anschutz 1807′s and such with 54′series actions, but quickly acquiring my own Feinwerkbau custom bench rifle. Shooting at St Marys Indoor Rifle Range, being indoor, there was little breeze (or so I’d thought), but at Sutherland, the range is open to the weather, and thus wind plays a part in the placement of shots.
I started off by completely ignoring the wind, and just concentrating on getting the shots on paper, then closer and closer towards the 10 ring.
One night early this year, I turned up to the range, and was horrified to see the wind flags dancing all over the place in the stiff wind blowing through the place. Up top, in the trees, it was howling through. I scored a 200, one of my first of many to come.
So, what was the difference between this night, and the others, where it’s been much quieter? Well, I was forced to wait for the breeze to relax.
Rather than waste ammo (and I was starting to shoot Lapua eXact, at $35 a box of 50!) shooting at each target, hoping, and praying for some luck, I waited for the wind to be more favourable to me. During my sighters, I noticed that the breeze would blow hard, and then completely relax. That state of relaxation would last about 30 seconds to a minute or two, then it would pick up and blow hard again. I took my time, waited, watched my timer tick down the minutes and seconds, and intently watched (nee, “studied”) the flags. I could feel the breeze kinda give a dying sigh, and collapse. I could see this effect in the flags – they’d go limp, but sway from side to side, slowing, then hanging limp. I’d then aim, fire, unload, reload, aim, fire, as quickly as I could whilst the breeze was dead, getting in two to four targets each time, before the wind cycle would start up again. I’d hear the noise from the trees before feeling the wind whistle through the firing line. Sit back, relax, and start studying the flags again.
The 200 was a very satisfying result. I ended up with the highest score that week, with my name on the board in the club house for all to see.
The lesson learnt that night was that patience pays.
As mentioned in an earlier blog post a few weeks back, I recently attended the North Rocks Prize Shoot, and had my first victory. I’d never been to that range before, and I was again horrified to see the wind flags all atwitter, and simultaneously pointing all around the compass. What to make of that?
I have developed a habit at the end of my setup phase, where I put my earplugs in with about 5 minutes to go, and wander off to a corner of the firing line to study the flags, and calm my nerves. It’s a time to watch the rhythm of the breeze, and see whether it has any discernable moments of clarity. Luckily for me, it did that morning.
I noticed that the breeze would be all over the place, but gradually drop to the point where all the flags were pointing from right to left, and fairly constant. I noticed that the breeze would also die away completely, though less often than just organising itself into one true direction.
I shot two 200′s and a 199, to place first in A-grade. The more telling statistic though was the 53 centers. The shooter in second place, scored a 598 with 46 centres, even though the breeze had moderated somewhat as the day wore on.
What stood out at this shoot for me wasn’t my first ever win, but how everyone else shot. Some of the guys took ten minutes or less to do all their shots. That’s fine, if the end result was a 200 (my first ever 200 was shot in under 10 minutes), but to score less than 200 (and especially scores around 195-199), I think is silly. Why get all the way to 195, but drop 5 shots because of impatience?
I also noticed that shooters were making silly shots at times. The flags would be all over the place, but I’d hear shot after shot go downrange. Unless they’re shooting on the sighters, to “test” the breeze and work out holdoffs, it’s Lady Luck who determines where those shots are going. I’d even occasionally hear a shot go downrange, followed by a groan from the shooter. Why did they let that shot go, if the end-result was always gonna be an 8 or 7?
That day, I learnt that discipline pays.
I put that into practice the next day, when I competed in the prone discipline. I scored a respectable 580, but amazingly, it was enough to win the day outright.
I’m a newbie at prone target rifle shooting, as I’d only been shooting this variant since March. So, imagine my horror when I turned up in the morning to shoot the first detail, and the flags were behaving significantly worse than the previous day. It was going to be a real test for me, as I only know how to aim dead-centre. I’ve still not worked out how to holdoff like I can with my bench gun. Again, I was forced to wait, use patience and discipline to shoot as accurately as I could, and see where I ended up.
I noticed one thing during that detail – I was always the last off the firing line. When the second to last shooter backed away from the firing line, I still had 5 or so shots to go. I made them all wait for me to finish.
I learnt one thing during my early days shooting benchrest – being first off the firing line does not win you a prize. This also applies to prone shooting. Admittedly, prone shooting involves a level of discomfort, which people lessen by shooting quickly. But I would have thought that, that day, the breeze was tricky enough to warrant caution.
I write this post today because someone heeded some of my “advice” (patience), and shot a great score. I was shooting in the third detail, with this guy next to me, when at some point early on, I noticed the breeze had picked up. I took my finger off the trigger and leaned back in my chair. This gent did the same. I was watching the flags, and reading the wind, and waited for the cycle to die off. Just when I felt it was right to shoot, when the flags visibly collapsed, and was squeezing the trigger, I heard a crack from next to me. I shot, scored a 10X, looked to my left, and noticed he was smiling.
“Good hold, mate”, I said. A nice center was the result, he replied.
I hope that he learnt something today, and not to just blindly fire through the breeze, hoping to Lady Luck each time.