Some shooters try to compensate for bullet drop or rise caused by the wind blowing directly away or directly towards the target. See the diagram to the right for more details on assigning wind value. When the wind is blowing at 0 degrees or 180 degrees (12 o'clock or 6 o'clock) relative to your position it is disregarded and given no value. Wind blowing at 45 degrees, 135 degrees, 225 degrees, or 315 degrees relative to your position is given three quarters value.
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When the wind is blowing at 90 degrees (3 o'clock) or 270 degrees (9 o'clock) relative to your shooting position, we assign it a full value of 1. Wind direction is determined relative to the shooter's position using the clock face method, or using the angle measured in degrees. This essential measurement will help you to determine what value to give to the wind full, three quarters, half, or no value. The most basic measurement that a flag is good for is determining actual wind direction. If your range doesn't have wind flags you can make some easily and inexpensively using some wooden stakes and fluorescent orange engineers tape. Wind flags are used at most long range rifle competitions, and are generally a permanent fixture at established rifle ranges. Assessing the direction of the wind is a fairly easy task.
The first step in negotiating atmospheric conditions is knowing the wind direction and how much value to assign it. Still, mirage can be your friend, as we'll discuss later you can use the mirage to your advantage by reading it to get very accurate wind speed estimations. In much the same fashion, light reflected off of your target is bent as it passes between dense cool air and less dense hot air. This is caused by light being bent as it passes through the boundary between the denser water and the less dense air. When you look at the spoon, you will notice that the handle above the water appears to be in a different place than the handle below the water. For an easy example of what mirage does, examine a spoon setting in a tall clear glass of water. Mirage is caused by differing air densities between the shooter and the target. This same phenomenon can plague shooters who are engaging targets at long-ranges, even on overcast or mild days. Look out across a blacktop road on a hot summer day and you'll see the watery mirage caused by hot air rising off of the sun baked asphalt. Almost everyone has seen a mirage before.
Mirage on the other hand can be a bit tricky. Compensating for wind is fairly easy, even for novice shooters. Mirage on the other hand can cause your target to appear blurry and distorted, or even have it appear to be where it is not, such that firing at the apparent image of your target will result in your bullet hitting somewhere other than the intended point of impact. The wind pushes your bullet as it flies downrange, changing the point of impact. The first, and most obvious, is the wind. There are two primary atmospheric conditions that can affect the point of impact of your fired round. There are some simple techniques for accurately reading the wind and mirage that you can use to determine how these conditions will affect your point of impact. But taking cues from the wind and mirage is not so much hocus-pocus. Reading wind and mirage is sometimes mentioned in the same breath as black magic and astrology. In that article, we touched on reading or "doping" the wind, as well as reading mirage.
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Last week we discussed how to bore sight and zero your scoped bolt action rifle.