June 13th, 2023This war wagon is used to transport varmint hunter around the Longmeadow Game Resort, located in Colorado. Here are some tips on how to reduce the effects of crosswinds on your shooting and improve your percentage of hit. You want to use the ability to change your shooting position and angle to put the breeze behind you. Benchrest or High Power shooters must use a specific shooting position. He must remain in place and deal with wind from any direction as it moves along the course.
A varmint-hunter can, on the other hand, move around to find the best spot for the wind. In most cases, you’ll get better results if you move your shooting position to the back of your body. This will reduce horizontal wind drift. Use wind flags to guide your fire in accordance with the prevailing wind. A varminter named “Catshooter”, explains: The String of Death
I remember the first dog town I visited in the Conata Basin in the Badlands region of southwest South Dakota. I was driving out with two other guys for 21 days of shooting and I had never seen wind like that. The weatherman said that if all four tires were on the ground and our vehicle was on the ground, this was “mild winds conditions”. After the first few days, we learned to be smart. We would park our truck on the windward side of town, so that the wind was behind us. We then put a piece on a 3-foot pole and placed it in front of each shooter. The string was pointing at the mounds we were going to target. We didn’t have any wind drift for the rest of our trip. We shot the dogs the string pointed at. We began calling our simple windpointer the “String of Death”. We were hitting dogs from distances I would not repeat (with benchrest rifles). I took a wind rig the first time.
If you are shooting in a large varmint area, it is best to have the wind at your rear. You can adjust your shooting position to work with the breeze, rather than against it, if you have a rotating table. You can also use simple flags to alert you of wind changes that you may not have noticed from your shooting position. If you cannot get the “wind at your back” orientation, then the next best setup is with the wind directly at you. This minimizes wind drift. Photos by Chris Long taken during Chris’s Wyoming Varmint Hunt.
Similar PostsTags: Varminting, Wind Advice and Calling, Prairie Dogs, varmint hunters, Wind Calling
