Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Long Range Hunting Latest shooting fad - and when they encounter the wind

no. don't think about it, learn about it.

"Actual wind deflection is directly proportional to lag time and wind speed." page 68, 'Applied Ballistics for Long Range Shooting', by Bryan Litz.

here's the math:

deflection (in feet)=crosswind speed in FPS x lag time

and this produces the same results as ballistics programs.

If it's easier for you to visualize think of time of flight in terms of length/time be my guest..
Using time of flight puts the entire event in time units and there is no need to break it into length sectors.
What the ballistic programs return from there inputs is based on there programming. Some on the internet simply use polynomial fitting curves and some others use algorhythms using stepped difference equations. Hopefully they will use one out of the NAG library that is generally accepted.if they are using fitting curves hopefully they have tested it against these to test for errors that are inherent in large calculations.
Fortunately the degree of precision needed dealing with guns and bullets isn't inherently high in the machine its self

It would be nice if the programs would allow multiple inputs at varying distances to reflect actual shooting conditions.

again, read my post above slowly so you can understand.

LAG time, not TOF is the key.

or maybe you'd like to point out where the drift formula above is incorrect?

Lag time is simply the difference between the actual and vacuum velocities.
It represents the differential change under these conditions.
TOF is not liked in the long range shooting community because drift is not drop, and TOF represents drop.
Which just means light wt. lower bc bullets need to be pushed faster,
So we end up with a rule of thumb that works because of the physical limitations of the device being used.

lag time is the difference between 'vacuum TOF' and actual TOF, not velocities.

we are talking drift here, right, given the title of the thread?

Lag time is not a new concept. The British used it with SMLEs it came around again during rifle silhouette in the 80s, reintroduced in the 90s and again in the middle2000. MDT chassis people have a good read on their web, and Benchrest people have stuff around 2007.
If it were that great everybody would be usuing it and no body would miss. (That Nobody too)
It's just another tool like TOF.
Off topic but the current limitation to the whole party is flame front velocities of propellants.