Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Long Range Hunting How Much Wind Risk Are You Willing To Take?

I've been a meteorologist for more than 35 years and in the last 15 years have specialized in microscale and mesoscale meteorology, especially doping the wind for wildland firefighters so they could stay out of the way of really large, fast-moving fires that are primarily moved by the wind.

Unless you're VERY skilled, figuring wind across a canyon is mostly a matter of luck. And even if you're very skilled, you won't get it right every time...sometimes not even most of the time.

Look at a small stream, how it moves quickly in the middle, slows near the sides and eddies where it actually makes contact with the bank. Then the eddies make contact with the slower water, causing turbulence, and the slower water creates friction with the faster water, which constantly moves the boundary between the areas of water moving at different speeds.

Now translate all of that into a vertical dimension rather than horizontal, switch the water for wind and you'll have SOME of the variability encountered in valley winds.

Kestrels are handy but they have their own limitations. Essentially, you have to accept that they are only measuring the wind they are exposed to - the wind at the height above the ground you're holding it, at the elevation on the hillside you're standing on, and only THAT hillside. It simply will not be the same in the center of the valley or on the other side of the valley.

Drawing a straight line across a valley to represent the path of a bullet, the center of the valley will generally have stronger winds because of less friction with the surface. Occasionally it will have much stronger winds because of the venturi effect that comes into play when wind is being funneled through a valley that is becoming narrower in the direction the wind is traveling.

If the valley is curving, you'll also get some rising motion on the outside edge, just like rushing water trying to make it around a tight bend in the river. We once had a nighttime backfire go exactly the wrong direction because down-valley winds picked up enough to push air up and over a cliffside that was directly above a bend in the river (the top of the cliff was where we lit our backfire).

Rising air will also play havoc with winds as the ground heats up in the afternoon. And since one side of the valley will almost always have different surface temps than the other side, influence on horizontally-moving wind will vary across the canyon, too.

Even when the wind is steady, friction with the surface will cause turbulence that builds steadily upward, turning your winds in multiple directions until it gets so far from the surface that it disengages - wherein the turbulence suddenly collapses and the wind becomes steady again. This steadiness only lasts until friction starts creating turbulence at ground-level again, building upwards from the surface in an ever-continuing cycle.

The motto of this story is simple: if you have still or very light winds, you might chance a long shot across a canyon and you will probably do well if you're a skilled shooter and if you don't wait long enough for conditions to change. But never assume the wind is doing anything you can count on - especially over long distances - and be ready for the consequences.

Not much. That's because over the years of shooting at rocks, I've learned that in the field, at least in the mountains and deserts here in the west, the wind can do lots of tricky things.
Your elk at 400 yds. would have to be holding still with less than 3 mph wind and it would have to be in a steady direction. On top of that, I'd need to range him with a LRF, and have a solid rest to shoot from. Above all, I'd have to have field tested the load I was using at said distance(s) in such a wind....
I might be inclined to shoot at a deer more readily simply because they die easier than the big tough animals with a less than good hit.
The other thing is that if he's holding still for all of the above, he probably doesn't know I'm around. Therefore, I can try getting closer. Yes, you can get closer even across open ground. I've done it with both elk and pronghorn. E

I've had my own dose of wind snafu's out west.....played with it intentionally ( on rocks not animals) to see the effects.Shoot through it at the range, etc etc.

Mostly saw it back in the days when I was a lot more innocent about it than later on.

I've passed shots I considered to be "risky" in the wind....but also made one of my longest ever after "doping", which was really a well educated guess.

I wonder sometimes,lets say at 400-700 yards, how much correction do people find acceptable on an unwounded bull elk at 400 + yards?

How much full value wind will make you take a pass on the shot?

I ask because the subject seems to get a lot of press on here.

Thanks.

Expert on wind and how it works..... dip schitt on actual shooting in it.....

People who ACTUALLY SHOOT..... will have an ACTUALL grasp on their abilities.....

Wankers who like to tell other people what/when/where/how to shoot.... but actually do very little of it themselves.... have no idea what their personal limits are..... because they're inside pounding away on a keyboard when then wind is blowing harder than 2-3mph.

Knowing what shots not to take.... takes experience. You don't get that experience by NOT shooting in the wind......

But, I KNOW my limitations in the field.... because I push them all the time.

Like I tell my sales guys all the time: if you don't Know..... then it's No....

The only thing shooting in wind has taught me, is how hard it is to hit things at distance in the wind.

Shooting steel that doesn't run away when you miss, is easy enough to hit through trial and error. To boast you can guess drift before ever firing a shot in volatile conditions is probably as much luck as skill. I have a drift chart and meter, but you have to assume a lot of things before pulling the trigger.

One thing that has not been mentioned is the value of a spotter in wind conditions, If you are shooting alone you are at a disadvantage in windy conditions if you have an unexperienced spotter you have the same disadvantage. If you have a spotter with the same experience as you do you can extend your range several hundred yards.

With my longtime hunting partner both of us made longrange hits in the wind several times past the mile mark, my hunting partner moved on to other things. I took my lifelong best friend with me on a hunting trip last year.....took a shot at 900yards........Where did it hit ??????

Lets go home....

Those that live in the myopia of one shot one kill have a spotter that are as good as they are.....and sometimes they miss the first and hit on the second !!!!!! No chance on the second with a crappy spotter.....

PM your address and I'll send a shoehorn to help remove your head from your ass.



Dave