F T/R Competition hold off or twist turrets
- Thread starter ghorsley
- Start date
I am by no measure "a top F class shooter", But I have found I can get much better accuracy if I hold center reticle. So, I turn my turrets for the distance.
The answer is both. Some guys hold off everything, some twist knobs, most hold off to some degree.
What ever works for you.
What ever works for you.
whatever the conditions require
I dial elevation and hold wind
That is a very good question, Pro's and Con's both ways. Wind is just a fact of life for us shooters, it is just going to have to be something you deal with. if you want to crank on your turrets you are going to have to be complettly aware of what you did and when you did it. In a long run in F-Class it is very easy to get lost, and be second guessing your self as to ie: did I dial in 1 MOA or was it 2? if you as an example stuff a shot into the 8 ring long on the right, and then get a reversal that says you need 2MOA of left ( a common occurance in a F-Class 1,000 yd match) that could easily be a 4 Minute change. That can be a serious problem if you are not really on top of what you are doing with the cranking on the windage dial, and in the heat of a match it is very easy to get lost. Do that and you can blow 6 or 7 shots until you are back on track.
Holding off also can have it problems. On a windy day you just may find yourself holding complettly off of your target backer, finding a reliable point of aim in those conditions can just eat your lunch. There is no pat answer I guess.
Another thing that is often overlooked is you "Must" know and have a true wind zero for your scope rifle combination. If you don't know where you are at any given time you are lost from the start. I have found very early in the morning the best time to get this true zero, pick a day with as close to no wind as you can and spend a little time and be sure you have this so you will know for sure that zero means zero.
I hold off almost all of the time, however a shooter must be flexable enough to make a change if conditions call for it.
Roland
Holding off also can have it problems. On a windy day you just may find yourself holding complettly off of your target backer, finding a reliable point of aim in those conditions can just eat your lunch. There is no pat answer I guess.
Another thing that is often overlooked is you "Must" know and have a true wind zero for your scope rifle combination. If you don't know where you are at any given time you are lost from the start. I have found very early in the morning the best time to get this true zero, pick a day with as close to no wind as you can and spend a little time and be sure you have this so you will know for sure that zero means zero.
I hold off almost all of the time, however a shooter must be flexable enough to make a change if conditions call for it.
Roland
I shot at camp lejeune on sat & sun. It was my first 1k match & only the 2nd time I've shot past 300. We had 8-10mph swirling tailwinds that were giving me a fit. At one point in my 2nd relay I had 2minutes left wind dialed in, and still had to hold on the left edge of the target frame to hit center. My point is you have to find what works for you and try to make the best wind call you can. (I found out, over this weekend, that that last part ain't so easy...
Shot my first Ever F/FTR today at 500 Yards, and boy was it a Blast!!! I held wind with my G2 FFP Reticle and I loved it. I couldn't have imagined dialing turrets all day, cause the wind changed directions soo many times today, right in the blink of an eye.
No F-Class yet, but I've shot long range and Palma (any sight), so here's my opinion...
If you cannot set your windage dial for zero (actually marked "0"), then you might be better off holding instead of having to keep track of settings. Aiming to reticle center is almost always more precise than holding off. I wouldn't buy a modern scope that cannot be set to zero, JMO.
OTOH, if the wind is variable, holding off is much faster. Know your reticle, and the amount of hold for a 10 mph wind. You can hold percentages once you know that (i.e. 8 mph is 80% of your 10 mph hold- fast, but not precise), or if you have a good hold for a 6 mph wind and the speed drops in half, you would halve the hold.
Different strokes for different folks, conditions, and scopes (reticles and knobs).
If you cannot set your windage dial for zero (actually marked "0"), then you might be better off holding instead of having to keep track of settings. Aiming to reticle center is almost always more precise than holding off. I wouldn't buy a modern scope that cannot be set to zero, JMO.
OTOH, if the wind is variable, holding off is much faster. Know your reticle, and the amount of hold for a 10 mph wind. You can hold percentages once you know that (i.e. 8 mph is 80% of your 10 mph hold- fast, but not precise), or if you have a good hold for a 6 mph wind and the speed drops in half, you would halve the hold.
Different strokes for different folks, conditions, and scopes (reticles and knobs).
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First off, I'm not a "top" shooter, however, been doing "F" class for about 10 years now. I believe by and large most 1000 yd. shooters figure what the "mean" or average wind is for the current period they are shooting in and dial that value, usually the value that will put them in the 10 ring on average except for pickups and letoffs. As they watch the indicators ( mirage, flags, whatever is avallable ) from shot to shot they will favor the side by what any change they may see. after each relay, usually 20 to 30 minutes or so, they will need to recheck the average wind for a possible dope change. on a fickle windy day it may be necessary to readjust sooner for average wind. be aware ( as mentioned earlier ) that you can become confused by " cranking " too much during your relay, not to say that occasionally it may be necessay if a sudden big change comes. I like to keep a chart at my firing position to show my favoring on each shot to help track what the wind is doing for that relay.
Dial elevation and hold for wind. If the wind is fairly steady, I've dialed for the average and then held for the variation, but that can bite me if the wind dies down and picks up. Come to think of it, wind bites me most of the time anyway.
Joe
Joe
Out here the wind changes so fast that I could never dial fast enough to keep up. And if I did, I'd never be able to remember how much I had dialed in.
With hold off, it's like using an analog computer. The stronger the wind, the more I pull the muzzle into the wind. If the wind dies, I ease up. If it strengthens, I pull more. If it switches to the other side, I just keep pulling into the wind (on the other side). It lets you just "feel" the correction. Works good for a low-speed brain like mine.
If you're dealing with steady sea breezes, then maybe dialing would work better. But out here, the wind can change every 10 seconds.
Note: If time and conditions allow, I *do* dial in a "bias" correction for spin drift (based on distance) and Coriolis effect (based on distance and azimuth) because that's invariant for a given target. At SacValley, for example, shooting from south to north the combined effect was 0.8 MOA left at 1000 yards.
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Is there any rule against using a Kestrel?
It has to be behind the firing line. It might be a useful training aid, but I don't think it will help much in a match. The switches at 1,000 are what will kill you. Plus, the wind at the firing line typically has little to do with the wind at the target or half way to the target. It just takes practice. One would be much better off learning at 500 or 600, as 1,000 is UNFORGIVING!
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