22 rim fire wind drift

[Mobuck]

Yesterday I found a scope in a box with a big ? mark on the end. AHH?? Apparently the scope was suspect of something?
I dug out a spare set of rings and mounted scope on the RAR 22lr and went out to shoot some "boxes" to see if I could determine why I'd assigned the "?" mark. I had to stop due to the wind and chilly fingers but decided I could do a "wind drift" test with the final 5 shots.
Five shots of Blazer HV @ 100 yards with increasing crosswind up to maybe 15 MPH resulted in a horizontal string of 4" -- not quite as much as I'd expected but still significant as it would cause a total miss of small game @ 40-50 yards.
Regarding the scope: still unsure about the "?" as it tracked pretty close around the square. I'll let Tom run it around the next time he's here and there's no wind to see what his results are.

 

[GRAMPS 51]

Hi I shoot 22 bench rest and I can tell you a 15 mph cross wind at 50 yards would push you off close to an inch at 100 yards I'm surprised your only off that much if I were you I would wait for a calmer day there are a dozen things to consider when shooting 22s outside and you more than likely would not believe half of it

Gramps

 

[Mobuck]

Yesterday was calmer so I ran that scope around the square again- going 40 clicks per change this time. Scope seems fine so not at all sure why the "?" on the box--maybe I'd re-used the box.
Any Hoo, I switched ammo and maybe found the sweet spot for the RAR--Federal Auto Match. It's not match winning but the little 3" swinger is in terrible danger @ 100 yards. Even with almost imperceptible air movement, there was 1-2" lateral deviation with just a puff of breeze.

 

[gunzo]

My ballistic software indicates .56" drift at a 100 yds. per every 1 MPH of crosswind for a Mini Mag. I've seen drift at 25 yards from just a puff.
I've got some dinky little home made wind indicators with surveyors tape as the flag. Fun to play with, & they've taught this old dog a thing or 2 that I should have known 40 years ago.

 

[Mobuck]

I was showing off for Grandson today and found that yesterday's "dead on zero" with a faint breeze was off 4 clicks with today's total lack of air movement. Grandson couldn't even see the white painted swingers against the dead grass background so I told him to just watch for them to move and then he'd know where they were. It's WAY easier to hit little stuff with that 9X scope--the RAR usually carries a 1.5-4.5x32 with crosshairs that are thicker than the swinger looks @ 100 yards. Maybe a couple more days of fun and I'll put the compact scope back on and re-check the zero with the muffler and CCI sub-sonic HP.