Fair enough. I don’t hold over or under for anything, elevation or wind, except in a few very limited circumstances. When I have tried it, in practice, I’m less accurate and slower. Having a reticle full of marks/hash/Christmas trees blocks my view of downrange conditions and effects, forces me to run a higher magnification than I’d like, and is way slower (imagine needing to hold 3.7 mils up and 1.3 left, welcome to the west) as I try to sort my way in to the dots. In the same vein, holding the center dot on the target is far more precise for me than trying to hold the 1.3 “space” in the middle.
New shooters should learn a useful technique, from the start. If they did, there would be fewer training scars, fewer midpack shooters timing out in a 2 minute troop line, less frustration, fewer people coming off a stage with no idea what the wind was actually doing, etc.
For my own practice, I go into a stage with each target’s elevation “dope” and the wind “difference” between targets memorized. I dial everything and know without looking what the windage knob is dialed to. It takes practice and I wear a dope card in case I get lost or see something very unexpected downrange. Just not needing to reference a dope chart between every shot makes a 2 minute stage feel like it’s twice as long.
As for when I’ll hold: on the modern skills stage, I usually dial the far target elevation and the near target wind. Hold under in center for the near and hold the reticle dot on the far and the wind additive as a hold. Call me a JTAC disciple.
Likewise if the wind is “on plate” but back and forth. I’ll look at mirage and hold the side of the plate as needed.
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