doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Shot string myths.

+1 Buzz. IMHO I expect wind drift to be similar for flying target and shot string. "Fugidaboudit,"to quote Tony S.

DDA

Thirty mile an hour crosswind? Most of the discussion has been about inches. Is there a little discrepancy between the point of aim and impact? Maybe, you're wearing more clothing than is normal for you? Maybe, loaner guns?

Agree. We had a fairly strong wind shooting skeet yesterday. I pulled the trigger on a high 4 just as it dropped about 2 feet. I would've sworn I hit the bird because of what it did, but the guys on my squad disagreed.

Craig, I'm not sure about the wind speed, but I am sure about how far the misses have been. I've seen it too many times. Could be some operator error for sure, but I blame the wind.

I don't know the math, but 30mph winds seem likely. Sometimes more. It being Canada, they always report the wind in kilometers to further confuse the matter.

We'll often set our decoys so the birds will cross into the wind as they toll. It seems to take their mind off the big field blind to have it to the side of the place we want them to try landing...Geo

I've seen the same time with ducks on the water. Patterns blown a pattern-diameter to the windward. Once it could be operator error, but not twice. That was back in the 80s with an 870 probably loaded with lead #4s and a modified choke at about the same distance or maybe slightly further. Winds tear the hell out of shot patterns in my experience. Out here on the prairies it is a very different ballgame than it was in Northeastern Minnesota where I grew up hunting grouse.

It was only a thought Geo, and yes I can appreciate the clarity of seeing the pattern on the ground or water. Thanks for commenting a little bit about your decoy setup. I think you folks probably have a nice blind. Depending on the temperature, wind half that speed starts making things tough out on the plains. After a while I figure you might start setting up with the wind to your back, especially if it's gusting above thirty. It definitely doesn't always work, but I enjoy doping the wind while rifle shooting, just gotta save those mental notes and apply them.

Craig, the blind is homemade. Heavy cordura (to break the wind) with a wooden support stake stapled in every four feet.

It is long enough to wrap around and give five hunters a four foot wide space or it can be shortened by driving less stakes to accommodate less hunters. The wooden stake has heavy wire loops top and bottom to insert steel rods, usually rebar to be driven in the ground. We finish by hanging four foot square grass mats on the steel stakes, and dress with whatever's in the field.

All can be rolled up to fit in the truck along with all of the rest of the ropes and tools of waterfowling. The blind may be set up either standing or as a low to the ground lean-to. We'll set it up back to the wind as a lean-to and end to the wind in he standing mode because there's less width to contend with the wind...Geo

The blind has lasted over twenty years now with about six or eight weeks constant use every Fall.

The Nilo shotshell efficiency test of 1972-73 showed these numbers: A load of #4 steel at 40 yards in a 90 degree, 10 mph crosswind moved the pattern 8.36". So, three times that wind velocity would move it three times as much, or 25", but only 18.75" at thirty yards. BBs would deflect even less than the #4s tested. Maybe you underestimated the wind speed.

Number 4 lead loads did not deflect as much, showing 6.56" at the same 40 yd. range.

Not making any accusations, but flinching, or jerking the trigger, on a "squirrel aimed" shotgun shot can account for a lot of pattern movement, and is very easy to do, even by very experienced shotgunners.

SRH

30 mph winds are pretty damn common on the plains. The Great Plains aren't anything like the coastal plain when it comes to wind.

Two pertinent words in this situation are ..........."visible chip".

SRH