doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com My educated buddy

I think it's an imaginative and peculiar notion of why he missed in the blind today: he said the 60km wind slowed his steel shot (at 1500fps) at blacks at 30 yards max. He evoked some theory of "the quarter." I said it may have an effect but it would be insignificant. I could hardly wait to get here to loose our physicists on him. The wind was blowing in his face and, yes, I told him it wasn't good to put out decoys there---I wasn't with him--- but I was wrong and the blacks didn't care.

Interesting concept, sounds like one of the local reloaders telling me that he uses ball powder cause the other kind has sharp edges and will wear the bore out in time.

I thought it peculiar, too, but when my friend was throwing around figures, and I not being able to count to 10, I was obliged to come here as a last resort.

King, particularly if it was also cold, there would have been some slowing of the shot from normal velocities. However, enough to miss a duck at 30 yds? Even assuming a bird that's a 90 degree crosser, thus requiring the most lead, that's a stretch.

Thanks, Larry. I promise not to bring notions of string theory and all those other things I'm hearing to the board!

Will he be able to compensate for the next time around. You should consider a friendly wager on his next miss.

Lemme try. I'm not a physicist, nor did I stay at a Holiday Inn last night, but here goes:

Some assumptions:
Average speed of his shells in still air over a 30 yd. distance - 900 FPS. Average speed in the raging gale - 810 FPS
Speed of crossing duck 30 mph (44 fps) (Assumed constant in both cases)
Distance of shot - 30 yards
Given this, it would take the shot .10 seconds to reach the duck in still air, and .11 seconds in the gale.
The duck would move 4'4" in the time it takes the still air shot to get to him. The duck would move 4' 8" in the gale.

Will 4 inches make the difference? You be the judge.

Oh boy! Figures, his mantra. It's on the way. My iMac makes a big whoosh as it goes into cyberspace. Thank you.

Some difference in flight time depending on the size of the pellets. All at 1500 fps, to 30 yards: Steel 2's, .080 seconds; 3's, .081 seconds; 4's, .083 seconds. Based on those numbers, just tell your friend to move up a shot size when there's a stiff wind. Forward allowance shouldn't change.

I can only be the voice of experience and not education here. One hunt in particular will illustrate. A friend, who is normally a fine shot, was shooting steel. Another friend and I were shooting Kent Tungsten Matrix. The wind was howling at around 30 miles an hour.

My steel shooting friend went through a box of shells and never killed a bird, my Kent TM friend and I both killed limits. My theory was that the lighter steel was getting blown away by the wind while our heavier Kent TM was staying on target enough to kill ducks. I've seen similar situations more than once but this was the most extreme.

I shot at a cripple on the water at maybe 25 yards, it took missing it twice to realize that I wasn't hitting where I was aiming. I had to lead into the wind to cover up the bird and kill it. Yeah, it was blowing pretty good that day for sure.


Destry