Yep thermals lifting and or a a headwind swirl. Not enough L-R to push it out.
I have had L-R and shots going high left.
only in RF. lol. A wind rose is a great tool as a reference point to refresh the memory and help inexperienced shooters understand some of the effects. But as it has been stated by others, many times, it’s just a reference point.

 

When I first looked at the picture I was immediately thinking the horizontal wind clock then I realized it was a vertically oriented chart not the old school one I learned with.

 

I see a lot of 1:00 shots in a left to right wind. Usually they're 4:00 - 5:00 but not always. Left to right used to be my favorite condition but lately right to left has been more predictable for me

 

We tend to think of wind moving across the range in a horizontal fashion, but there is a vertical component to wind too. Most wind flags are not made to show this vertical movement. Also, when there is either a change in the wind's direction or a change in velocity, the leading edge of the wind has "dirty" air; think of the leading edge of the air as tumbling as it rolls across the landscape.

 

Interesting discussion. We see this on our range at times, it seems the flags are not picking up these "up-lifts" in wind resulting in high impacts.

 

Thanks for the replies. That all makes sense, especially the thermals. As a deer hunter in the mountains that something I pay a lot of attention to, looks like I’ll start paying attention to it as a shooter as well.

Right to left is more predictable for me as well. With a left to right I’m more prone to missing a hold.

 

Left to right wind is the one that gets me the most.

 

This is the one that I use as a reference since it provides a quicker visual

 

I like the second one too. It’s faster in my brain.

 

I keep a wind card on my rest for reference when watching the flags and I will say it’s spot on most of the time. One thing I’ve noticed is when I get a 7 or 8 o clock wind sometimes I impact at 1/2 o’clock and other times it will be 4/5 o’clock. Has anyone else noticed this? It seems if I have a low 2-3mph wind I’ll get pushed high right but if it’s 5mph+ I get pushed low right?


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Yes Sir, we shoot that condition quite a bit. Enough so that I will shoot it during a match when it comes around. It usually occurs during light wind conditions as you described.

Pretty sure thermals are involved and it's definitely not found on the wind charts.

Here are a couple pics showing the condition, the hold and the shot.

 

We don't get a lot of left to right conditions at PGC, we are only a few miles from the coast and the range faces SE and the winds come in from the West and SW. We also have a fairly tall tree line along the range about 30 - 40 feet from bench 1. Mid Carolina faces SW and tomorrows winds are forecast to come in from the SW, forecast is calling for 4 - 5 mph. The kink is those soybean field heat up and create big thermals crating a switching gusty condition. I need to get up there and shoot more often

 

The range our matches are on is one I don’t get a chance to shoot at other than during a match and I’m not as familiar with the currents there. Every time I set aside a time to go shoot something comes up and I can’t make the three hour round trip to that particular range.

 

Google "Magnus Effect" as well. It may explain more of the vertical displacement. Knowing which direction your barrel twists is key there.

 

So that uppy flag in the first picture would you hold at like 7 o’clock.

 

At that particular moment I was hammering sighters, shots hitting all over the place, hoping to tease other shooters to join in and it worked....they were shooting for score.
After a few minutes it leveled out and I went back to shooting bulls for score myself. LOL!!! We had a big laugh over this!!

Nothing is exact and sighters are the only way to tell where the shot is going then you just compare the shots to what the flags are showing and see if it is consistent enough to shoot. It can all change from bench to bench, day to day and range to range.

Hope this makes sense Sir.