Adjusting for windage?

[bigbrother]

Unfortunately, there's not a cure all or "cheat" for shooting in the wind. But there is most certainly a way to calculate wind drift and it's done the same way you calculate "hold over" or elevation adjustment.

In order to determine either you need a ballistic calculator. You can buy one, download one, or use a free site but one is necessary to determine drop and drift. (of course you can do it all on paper if you get the formulas but it's way too much math for me!) They do have a number (exbal/jbm) you can put on your smart phone and change it for real time or in the field calculations! here's the one I use: http://www.mega.nu/traj.html

I'm assuming that your simply looking for inches of holdover and inches of drift which you'll find when talking to long range shooters is not the advisable or acceptable way. When shooting past 500 yards, we are making actual adjustments to our scopes and holding on where we want to shoot or at least using a mil dot reticle to have a precise aiming point. But for the sake of the post we'll talk inches and hold over out to 500 yards.

If you have your calculator you next need to now a number of things: the true bc of your bullet, the actual velocity your rifle is shooting your ammo, for this you need to shoot a minimum 10 shot string over a chronograph to get an average, the elevation you will be hunting at, and an expected temperature you will be hunting in. All of this goes into determining drops and drift. In the calculator, you will be able to pick a wind speed for a drift computation. Picking 10mph is typically the simplest that way you can go up or down in your head easier in multiples or 1/2's. Once you know all of these things, plug the info into the calculator and it spits out a ballistic chart giving you inches of drop and drift in increments out to however far you want. (ie every 25yards from 100 to 500 yards)

NOW, first thing to remember is that the chart values are for a FULL VALUE (crosswind blowing 90deg to line of sight) wind. Next, you need to know the actual wind speed, licking a finger doesn't cut it. So, you'll need a Kestrel wind meter or something similar to determine speed and direction. So for sake of simplicity lets say you're shooting a 30-06 with a 180g bullet with a bc of .435 and a G7 drag, hunting at 6500 feet in elevaiton on a 45 degree day. The computer says you need 9.94" of drift compensation at 500 yards in a 10mph crosswind. But it's blowing 15mph!!!! Now what? Multiply 10" (round up cause you can't hold .06" off anyway) by 1.5 and now you need 15" of hold off.....if it's 20mph you need 20".

In reality that's a very simple and probably not "real life" situation. More than likely you'll be shooting in wind other than full value. There's not enough room to explain all of the intricises of shooting in the wind but here's a boiled down version. If the winds in your face or at your back (0 value wind), to 500 yards don't worry about it, make your elevation correction and concentrate on making a good shot. If the wind is blowing at a 45 to your line of sight (1/2 value) you will need 75% of your drift value. (this varies slightly but to 500 yards it's negligent) If it's blowing from say 1:00, 11:00, 5:00 or 7:00 use 50% of your drift.

There are other circumstances you may encounter, especially when shooting further than 500 yards that you need to consider as well. Such as the wind blowing multiple directions ie, one way where you're at, the complete opposite where the target is. Maybe even 3 ways or 3 values between you and your target. The most important however is the wind from where you're at to 1/2 way to the target. This wind typically has the most effect on your bullet.

Again, when shooting to 500yards, knowing the wind speed where you're shooting from and the effect that wind has on your bullet is most important. Even a small wind deflects a bullet alot. I know I rambled a little bit but I hope it helps...