My shootin' days are long past, so my interest in range flags is altogether academic. FWIW2U, I can add very, very little from my leaky ol' memory. I suspect that these li'l nuggets will jibe neatly (pun intended) with JB's observations.
Somewhere in the middle of the midden that I live in, there's a large sheet of paper � a "wind map" that Homer Powley drew.
He stationed a bunch of helpers behind safe barricades at several in-between mid-range distances, then fired over their heads at the target beyond them.
As the bullet crackled past each mid-range observer, that fellow recorded the direction and the speed of the wind at his location, at that instant.
Homer's "map" shows that the wind was blowing every whichaway, at different speeds, between the muzzle and the target.
A wind flag fluttering at every ten to fifty yards between the muzzle and a distant target is indeed an interesting sight to see!
And an old (1950ish) photography magazine once ran a photograph of flags on opposite sides of the street rippling briskly in directly opposite directions at the same time.
So much for the assumption that a wind from 90� to the left is always and only at 90� or from the left all the way out to that far target.
