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Does wind speed effect target accuracy with a handgun out to 20 yards?


kmam2010

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Hello, 
           I am very new to uspsa shooting and I was curious how much wind speed affects target accuracy out to 20 yards on a windy day. Is it nothing to be concerned with when the forecast calls for 10 to 20 mph winds on match day?
what caliber are you shooting?

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I figured it would be better to provide some data. This is a chart I generated on JBM Ballistics. 124gr Winchester bullet. 1080ft/s muzzle velocity. That gave me half an inch of drift at 20 yards in a 30mph wind. I'd say you'd need to be shooting in a hurricane for it to matter at 20 yards.

 

The column marked "Windage" is displayed in inches of drift.

windage.jpg

Edited by Will_M
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1 hour ago, jkrispies said:

 no in terms of bullet flight  but the wind is strong enough to push ME around, which gets in the way of my being able to aim with stability.   

 

Even at 35 yards, pistol bullets ain't going far in any kind of wind that you'll be shooting in,

BUT as JK mentions, a stiff breeze does push your stable platform around a bit - and if

it's windy enough, you can get hit with blowing leaves, etc.     :) 

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Wind is mostly irrelevant for the ranges we are engaging targets.  The affects on the shooter or even the bullet after being fired are minimal.  However, it is a pain on match day to keep the targets, props, and walls from blowing over.

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3 hours ago, mwc said:

  However, it is a pain on match day to keep the targets, props, and walls from blowing over.

 

Or preventing steels from falling if the wind is coming from behind them and you are shooting 9mm. 

 

Wonder what the rule is about paper targets moved by wind gusts interfering with a shooter? R.o. Judgment call? Some days it seems like an equal disadvantage for all and then other days there will be that one or two unlucky persons who runs the stage while there is an unusual large gust. 

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One SWPL match I shot we started with about 75 shooters and only a handful, I think 8, of us finished the entire match because the wind was gusting so hard it kept blowing over the barricades so that each stage had to be reset after every shooter.  On one stage I had to go prone, and luckily I was shooting a Glock because when I cleaned the gun that night, pebbles literally fell out of the lower from being blown into the gun when it was cycling. The majority of the guys quit early because they couldn’t keep thier 2011’s running in the dust.  It’s the one match where I can say that I beat Taran Butler... because he’d already earned enough points to earn his SWPL cup for the year so he called it quits after the first stage and went back to his warm and comfortable home, LOL. 

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On 10/18/2018 at 7:24 AM, jkrispies said:

I’ve been in situations where the wind is strong enough to push ME around, which gets in the way of my being able to aim with stability.   

The wind and snow and freezing temps have a bigger effect on me than they do on external ballistics. Gusting winds over 20 all of a sudden just wack you. Steady winds are not so bad. I'm 170 lbs.

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