Let’s assume that we are shooting in windless conditions at three hundred yards and fire a shot which ends up a low V. We have no way of knowing whether this shot represents the centre of where our subsequent group will develop. It may be in the centre, it may be at the top or bottom of the group or on the edge of it or anywhere in between.


If the shooter/rifle/ammunition combination are capable of grouping to a minute or thereabouts, then


DEALING WITH THE WIND PART 5


or her group-centre is before committing to scoring shots. The TR shooter is stuck with only two sighters and in many team events only one!


We have to make the best we can of the situation and we do this by quickly and diligently plotting our corrected elevation.


Now let’s look at the situation which may develop in the two scenarios portrayed in Figs 2 and 3., above, where that first shot was actually at the bottom of the group and where there is little or no wind and where the shooter makes apparently rational decisions based on the plot below.


Fig. 6 The fig. 5 scenario in reality.


there is a possibility that the next shot fired will fall anywhere within the five (blue) circles shown in Fig 2. Giving something like a 70% probability of scoring a bull.


If on the other hand, this combination can only produce groups of 2½ minutes or thereabouts as shown in Fig 3. There is only about a 15% probability of a bull, 40% for an inner 40% for a magpie and about 5% for an outer.


In both cases, the shots have gone in the same relative positions related to the actual group-centre. Note that in addition to the vertical spread shots 1, 6 and 8 (above) have lost points due to the lateral size of the group. Remember, there is very little wind so the lateral spread of the shots is caused by the group size. The shooter is making wind adjustments based on his perception of what the wind is likely to do to the group centre. Remember this it is important: What the wind is likely to do to the group centre.


Let’s now look at a practical example where indifferent ammunition quality made the shooter’s task well nigh impossible and where good ammunition made it a lot easier. Same shooter, (the author), same rifle (Barnard), same range, reasonably similar wind conditions, different ammunition.


The plot above, relates to a shoot in the 2008 NRA Imperial Meeting with issue RG ammunition and Fig.7 (below) in the 2008 Welsh Open Championship shot at the same distance with my own ammunition.


Fig 7 The fig. 4 scenario in reality.


Since we don’t know where the next shot is going until we fire it, we have to assume that the shot is in the centre of the group - unless we have a strong reason to believe otherwise. The smallbore shooter has the luxury of firing a limitless number of sighters and should have a high degree of confidence in where his


41


Given the large vertical spread in the first case, it is reasonable to assume that the horizontal spread is also quite large. Were shots 4 6 and 14 all down to errors in wind judgement or were some of them down to the ammunition?


So we come to the crux of the matter. Target Rifle matches (and F Class for that matter) are won and lost by wind judgement.


Whilst we are about to cover the theory of this in some detail, there is no Holy Grail. It is very much a case of


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