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I used to put out wind flags, where I lived because it was damn windy in the gorge all the time. Now where I live, it's windy on occasion, but most times it is about 5 mph. A light wind will not mess with a group too much when you have a target set at 100 yards away. I know JB has written some articles on using wind flags, but from what I've seen, the wind has very little affect on modern bullets at short range. As for those that simply rely on a chronograph to give you numbers, well, I've seen that bite guys in the azz too. If you are working up a load, shooting and reading groups, you better bring your A game to the bench. That is the most important factor, besides knowing your rifle is mechanically sound. However, if you want to use Wind flags, they are super simple to make. But I would suggest to work up loads on a fairly calm day, vs shooting in the wind. Use surveyors tape, if you have to. Those are easy to see and move in the wind easily. Plus a roll is easy to keep in the range bag or truck. These days I just staple up my targets in a way that the wind will move the bottom corners of the paper. I use 3 staples. 2 in the top and 1 in the bottom. Its easy to feel which direction the wind is coming from at the bench and then look downrange on target to see if the bottom corner of the paper target is moving as well. In some of my long range shoots, wind flags are not allowed. I love that aspect too, because then you have to use the environment to judge the wind. A lot of guys fail that test, but when you learn to read things like a bush or grass moving downrange, or bullet splash and dust cloud direction, then you are learning real world scenarios that will move a bullet at distance. None of you guys are mentioning head winds and tail winds either, if you really want to get technical, you should delve into that in your free time. Guys don't like my targets, but this group was shot the other day when this thread started. 5 mph wind and it was the best group shot during load development:

NOTE: All groups shot this day, were sub moa.

That was from a new rifle, that I threw into a B&C, glass bedded it and scoped it with a new scope after I checked the rifle with a proven scope. Now to test the New Zeiss V4 conquest and rifle and develop some loads with unfamiliar powder and bullets:

I don't generally like to "develop" loads at 400 yards, but I figured it was too cold and slightly too windy to develop loads that day anyway. So out of curiosity, I flung some at 400 yards. Here is the result of one 3 shot group:


I also had another rifle out that day: My 6.5 Creedmoor Tikka CTR that I just put in a Mcmillan A3 stock. Also working on some loads with the Barnes match burner bullet in this rifle. Both rifles also using StaBall 6.5 powder. All new to me, but I wanted to do some testing. One load did the best at 100 yards:

Then another charge weight looked like crap, but if you lay one target over the other you are still going to have a sub moa (.831") 10 shot group:

There's that evil double grouping I was talking about earlier^^^^^^ (3 in 1 hole and 2 out). Who knows, maybe a wind gust came in from the left side? Still not enough to really concern me. I knew the wind was pretty constant though from left to right.

At 400, I put 3/4 moa adjustment in the scope to shift the POI more to the left, but that was still not quite enough:


So what does this tell me? As I had intended, and written on the targets, I will need to double check a couple loads from each rifle. I want to see how this powder does on a warmer day. Some guys say StaBall 6.5 is pretty temp stable. We will see. As for "reading" groups, I'll fire off some 10 shot groups to see what they are really doing. Once confirmed, you can then shoot your 3 shot groups. At 100 yards, those are pretty boring, but at 400+ yards, they will show you POI shift due to the wind.