Click Or Hold?
What Is Best For Wind Deflection? John Antanies
a bullet fi red at 650 yards will drift the same in a 10 mph wind today as it did last week in the same wind at the same range (assuming no huge difference in temperature). Unfortunately, the wind doesn’t blow steadily, and therein lies the problem. Assuming that we have estimated
the wind speed correctly, we have two choices in terms of compensating for it: We can click our scope or we can hold off. Which is better? That is the subject of this article. At very long ranges wind presents
Windage Illustration - The “right hand rule” will tell you which way electrical current fl ows when a magnetic fi eld rotates about a conductor, but for readers it has more value in showing which way your bullet moves when you spin a knob. Turning the windage knob in the direction shown by the author’s curling fi ngers results in the bullet moving in the direction of his thumb.
This is the Leupold Varmint Hunter reticle. It allows for drop compensation as well as wind defl ection hold off for 10 and 20 mph winds. While the vertical drop compensation is relatively fast and easy to use, it requires “holding off in space” if the range is between major increments with strong winds.
Page 66 Spring 2012
limiting factor in being able to connect is the ability to read and hold for the wind. I have said it many times before: You can determine the range with a laser rangefi nder and use either a bal- listic reticle or adjust your sights (click) to allow for bullet drop. The path of the bullet is extremely repeatable, and even if the results you see in the fi eld don’t match the ballistics charts you are using, it is no big deal to alter them. When all conditions are equal, a bullet fi red at 650 yards today will drop the same as it did last week. Of course, conditions are never equal – the temperature might be different, the angle of the target might be different, and the muzzle velocity of your bullet may not be the same. But these pale in comparison to the diffi - culty that wind defl ection presents. To be sure, when all conditions are equal,
E
very long-range shooter worth his salt knows the
a challenge: Very small changes in wind speed require major changes in trajec- tory compensation. In this regard, it is not unlike the problem of long range shooting: Small increases in range dramatically change bullet drop. For example, my 220 Swift shooting 75-gr. Hornady A-Max bullets drifts 2.7 inches more at 600 yards if the wind speed increases a mere 1 mph. That is enough to miss a prairie dog. An increase in speed of 2 mph will cause the bullet to strike 5.4 inches off – enough to miss the vital area of a deer. So clearly, we must compensate for changes in wind speed as small as 1 mph. Do we hold off or do we click our scope? Clicking the scope offers the
utmost in precision. A hold-off of 2.7 inches at 600 yards is two clicks if we use a scope with ¼ inch adjustments. Dial it in and shoot, right? It works great as long as the wind doesn’t change. And that is the problem: The wind will change. If you don’t believe me, go out- side right now and hold an anemometer into the wind. If the wind is blowing, it will not be blowing steadily. In a mere second it will often change 1 mph; in the span of 5 seconds it often moves +/- 3 mph. And to add insult to injury, the wind 300 yards away might be chang- ing just as rapidly – only it is impossible to measure. Clicking is very diffi cult in these conditions, and constantly going back and forth can be a time killer, and time kills shot opportunities. Clicking for wind presents a few
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