Re: The Art Of Calling Wind.
Exactly, there are places where indicators don't exist... we deal with Combat Weatherman alot, and I always ask them about it, every single class in fact, and these guys can look at a tree and tell you the prevailing winds from the direction of growth, but all they will tell you from looking at trees, leaves, grass, etc, that all the wind is doing is "blowing" they don't put any faith in putting a number on it, other than learned experience from wind at the shooter.
trees, leaves, grass, across a 1000 yards or more, it's not an honest or accurate representation. It's an educated wild ass guess from data at the shooter, felt, metered, or a combination of both. Someone can ask me the speed and I am usually withing a couple miles per hour because I live in the wind day in and day out and work with it, but explaining it to someone who is learning, that is a different story. I recommend "feeling it", "watching it" and then "metering it" so you can get a base line and start to train yourself to understand and gauge it.
I can tell you for a fact, that in a 2 minute period of metering the wind it can change from 3 MPH to 24MPH here were we shoot. And the trees are not reacting to those changes. It gusts, drops off, gusts again higher and all the leaves do is "move" they don't register those changes, and in fact a change at me does not mean a change 300 meters out. So you can take a baseline, read the averages, but you have to be conscious of the ebbs and flows, which only a meter will tell with any certainty.
In certain places, trees barely grow, in other places leaves are off the trees and the grass is dead or covered with snow. In the mountains, 7,000 ft above sea level, surrounded by rocks and peaks there are no indicators and nothing on "Vern's list" is present to help me. As well across a valley shooting down at an angle, again, I have to understand that friction changes as the wind is impacted by the ground, which is now sticking up into the sky. At Thunder Ranch we watched a bullet get blown 10ft over a target by a sudden updraft hitting the opposite hillside. No tree moving will demonstrate that, we happened to see it because the snow was falling, but without the aid of snow ???
Science and Art collide with wind and for a new shooter or one wanting to understand the early stages of their training, the best chance of success lies with making a guess and checking that guess against a meter, and then understanding the bullet lives well above the ground and as your rise the wind speed increase at least 2 MPH or more the higher the bullet goes.
The smartest thing people can do is "Believe the Bullet" you have to understand the bullet will give 100% of the information necessary to make a second shot hit, and in most cases there is a 3 to 5 second honeymoon period where, if the shooter is straight behind the rifle, driving it correctly, and they can follow up within that honeymoon they will put the target down. you can dick up the range, you can dick up the wind, and if that happens, if you spot your own shot, you can fix it within that 3 to 5 seconds. They idea you can take anyone, drop them off anywhere in the world and expect a 1st round hit at 1000 yards under any conditions is not realistic, but you can expect them to see the results of their shot and fix it, which is the mark of a true professional and is skill relished by many around the world.
What happens is people put a number in their head and begin to second guess themselves and don't listen the bullet, the bullet does not lie unless you feed it bad information. The internal fight happens all the time with shooters, they see their shot missed and then shoot in the exact same place expecting a different result.
A 1MPH wind will move a 175gr 308 roughly 10" at 1000 yards, being able to guess the wind looking at a leave blowing 800 meters away within 1 MPH is not practical... you can estimate it, but "reading a leave" is like reading your fortune, nothing but a whole lot but generalities that are mostly right, but have nothing to do with anything.
Dope the wind at the shooter, because hoping or waiting for a downrange indicator to be present or appear maybe a losing proposition... If you use a meter to verify your estimation, you'll begin to build a foundation for reading the wind, or at least it will give you can understanding of what it means when you do see it move objects within your area, but relying on its accuracy within 2MPH, its not really so good by themselves, it must be combined with something a bit more scientific.
Above all else, shoot in the wind every chance you get, no matter how strong, take the time and engage it and believe the bullet.
shooting position is the clearing on the hill 938 yrds away)
