Tail wind or head wind affect on bullet

timb

New member
If I have to wait until the wind quits blowing here in Kansas to do some shooting, it might be Spring!

Just wondering how a direct tail wind or direct head wind would affect sighting in a rifle.

Would the bullet tend to hit lower in a head wind and higher in a tail wind?

Caliber is .223, and bullet weights will run from a 40 gr. VMax to a 60 gr. VMax.

Thanks!
Tim
 
In both cases the bullet will hit high.

If you are waiting for the wind to quit blowing in KS you may get very old to see it. I have extended family in KS that have lived there their entire lives.....they are still waiting for that.
 
Last edited:
Tail wind high
Head wind low

How much depends on the bullet, range, and wind speed.
Most likely you shouldn't have to account for it at normal hunting distances...
 
Quote:
In both cases the bullet will hit high.

If you are waiting for the wind to quit blowing in KS you may get very old to see it. I have extended family in KS that have lived there their entire lives.....they are still waiting for that.



I can understand why a tail wind would hit high but wouldn't a head wind hit low because it's slowing the bullet down faster than if there weren't a wind?
 
My guess is at 100 yds, you can't tell the difference. At 500 you probably could.

Unless your rifle can shoot 1/4" all day long (ok here it comes) if you do your part, I doubt you could tell the difference.

Dave
 
Both seem to make sense...
low- bc its slowing it down, but is it enought to cause it to drop

High- think of throwing anything into a strong wind the wind provides lift and a ball bullet or any other object will tend to rise, yes slows down but will end up higher until it hits a point that velocity drops low enough that the object starts to fall.

/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused1.gif
 
5.3 Wind Effects

A bullet's reaction to a wind depends very much on both the speed of the wind and the direction in which it blows. In the first place, a headwind or a tailwind causes a vertical deflection (a change in drop) of the bullet, while a crosswind causes a horizontal deflection. It also happens that a crosswind causes a much larger deflection than does a headwind or tailwind of the same speed. As an example, take the .308 Winchester cartridge loaded with the Sierra 190 grain HPBT MatchKing bullet at a muzzle velocity of 2500 fps. At a range of 600 yards, a 5 mph headwind would cause the bullet to strike the target 0.30 inch lower than it would with no wind. A 5 mph tailwind would cause the bullet to shoot high by the same amount. In either case, a well-aimed shot certainly would stay within the X-ring on the 600 yard target. But a 5 mph crosswind would deflect the bullet 14.35 inches to one side, with a devastating effect on the shooter's score if he hadn't made a windage correction.

This example is very typical of the relative importance of a crosswind as opposed to a headwind or tailwind. As we will show a little later, the effects of a headwind or tailwind can be neglected for almost all shooting situations, except perhaps for extra long range (1000 yard) target shooting in strong winds. Crosswinds, though, are important for hunting as well as target shooting. The crosswind deflections in the Ballistics Tables show how much crosswinds affect each Sierra bullet, and it is clear that both hunters and target shooters need to be aware of the importance of crosswinds.

Although a crosswind has a strong effect on bullet flight, it turns out to be much less than what might be expected from rough reasoning. Actually, a flying bullet tends to "resist" the wind to a large degree. It does not simply follow the sideward motion of the air mass through which it flies. This is an important point to understand, and we will develop it further a little later.

Of course, Mother Nature seldom obliges a shooter with a wind that blows only along or only across the line of sight to his target, so we are really concerned with winds from any direction. It turns out, though, that a wind from any direction can always be regarded as made up of two component winds, one parallel to the shooter's line of sight and one perpendicular to it. Figure 5.3-1 is an example of how this happens. The vector representing the true wind points in the direction in which the wind is blowing, and the length of the vector is scaled to the true wind speed. The crosswind component always has a direction perpendicular to the shooter's line of sight, and the other component (headwind or tailwind component) is always parallel to the shooter's line of sight. The two component vectors always are made just long enough so that, when they add together in the head-to-tail fashion shown in Figure 5.3-1 , they start at the tail of the true wind vector and end at its head. Then the lengths of these component vectors represent their speeds.

The number table in Figure 5.3-1 can help you calculate the two component winds if you know the speed and direction of the true wind. Some well-equipped target ranges, like Camp Perry, Ohio, have wind meters which display this information. As an example of how to use the number table, suppose that the true wind speed is 10 mph and that it makes an angle of 35 degrees to the line of sight. Looking down the number table to 35 degrees, we see that the headwind component has a speed of .819 x 10 = 8.19 mph, and the crosswind component has a speed of .574 x 10 = 5.74 mph.

This may all seem very complicated, but it is important to understand how a true wind is made up of the two physical components for the following reasons:
1. A components acting simultaneously.
2. Thnent causes a horizontal deflection.
3. Fod v ts!

The following three subsections will describe these wind effects in a little more detail, and examples will be given to verify the key observations made in this introduction to wind effects. Before proceeding, we should note that it is possible to have vertical wind components, as well as headwinds, tailwinds, and crosswinds. Vertical winds are mainly encountered in hunting mountainous or hill terrain; they are very seldom important in target shooting. The effect of a vertical wind component is just like the effect of a crosswind component, except that it causes a vertical, rather than a horizontal, deflection. Hunters should be aware that vertical wind components happen in canyons and close to steep hillsides and that they can cause a bullet to shoot high or low, just as a crosswind will cause it to shoot left or right.
 
Thanks guys--will just have to go shoot tomorrow, irregardless of the wind and set up and shoot downwind.

skb--I have lived in KS all my life and am used to the wind, however, it is windstill 3 out of 5 days during the workweek, and blows like a banshee on the weekends when I have time to shoot!
Tim
 
Quote:
Quote:
In both cases the bullet will hit high.

If you are waiting for the wind to quit blowing in KS you may get very old to see it. I have extended family in KS that have lived there their entire lives.....they are still waiting for that.



I can understand why a tail wind would hit high but wouldn't a head wind hit low because it's slowing the bullet down faster than if there weren't a wind?



While I may not understand it...or at least can't explain it. I see it in practice all the time.

I make many trips out to the prairie to shoot pds. the wind is almost always blowing one way or another. We like to setup with the wind at our backs if possible. If not we will setup so that shots are predominantly either directly into or going away with the wind. We know from thousands of shots and dozens of times of doing this that our rifles will be shooting a bit high as compared to the calm and still.
 
Last edited:
I absolutely love shooting when it is windy! Then I have a built in excuse for larger groups or misses /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Point is, I don't let it stop me from what I want to do. shooting/hunting time is hard enough for me to find anyway.

I'm siding with the ones here that say a headwind would make a bullet drop more. My belief is that the bullet does not "glide" or have any aerodynamic lift so a headwind would not increase that to make it hit high. I do think that you would have to see REALLy BIG winds or shoot at least a 500 yards to really see a quantifiable difference though. Basically you would be trying to figure out how much affect a 40 mph head wind has on something that is aerodynamically efficient and traveling at over 2000 MPH already. What is that? 2%? negligible, that would be like being able to hold +/-35 fps. I doubt that happens very much.

Cheers,
 
Interesting, I went out and setup a couple stands 2 days ago and it was wwwwwindy. I didn't have any luck on the first stand so I took a few shots at jackrabbit that I had noticed about 180yds to my twelve directly into the 35mph gusts.. Well shooting of my sticks with my RRA I hit about 6 inches (guess on my part) high so I tried again same thing only a little higher. By this time the rabbit was gone and I decided to start shooting in all directions and had typical expected results with crosswinds but the head wind certainly was hitting little bit high..

I was surprised for what its worth. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused1.gif
 
I know it is explained in one of the loading books (I believe it is Sierra) but for what its worth I sent a request for an explanation to Sierra (Paul Box). I am sure it is high both into and with.
 
No high tech here. I either set my sights on a slight head or tail wind..OR no wind day. Get my zero where I want it. T-shoot some more @ varying yardages. Then I take the same setting & T-shoot @ varying yardages with varying wind speeds & angles @ longer ranges. Then hunt.
 
OK, here i go i'll also mention that i wish i kept better record's.

I'm gonna say i'm with skb2706,their gonna be high.

As you have already mentioned if you have to sight in with windy condition's it's best to have the wind in front or behind you.

Of course sidewind's will shift point of impact horizontal.

Just for conversation i thought that sidewind's also might affect vertical p.o.i. i couldn't swear to it though.

Sorry for running off 1/2 cocked,hope you get a chance to sight in on a calm day.

JMO
 
Timb i hear you man this wind is one thing els, but to make it wours when the wind douse stop uor nabors are dear hunting right behind my range IM DOUNE RIGHT TICED

GJ
 
I NEVER work up a load with a head wind blowing, never. It can give you 1 1/2" of vertical on the "blow", when the wind dies down, your shots are stringing vertical.

By the way, a head wind is rarely ever blowing straight at you, it is usually quartering...your groups are huge in this event.

One guy mentioning shooting dogs with the wind to his back. I tried this only on one occasion over the many years. The sound of a 223 will immediately carry 400 yards down wind, which puts the dogs down very fast.

I liked to set up shooting dogs with a cross wind, the wind blows the sound of the gunshots away from your intended targets so that follow up shots are possible.

Two wind flags are the very best investment that a guy that loves to shoot could ever buy. The wind flags will teach you volumes on the very first trip to the rifle range.
 
Quote:
My guess is at 100 yds, you can't tell the difference. At 500 you probably could.

Unless your rifle can shoot 1/4" all day long (ok here it comes) if you do your part, I doubt you could tell the difference.

Dave

+1 mousedipper i agree 100% Ive shoot on calm days and then shoot the same rifle on 10 to 15mph wind days and there was no change in poi. Now if your getting the 30 mph ks wind it may just a little. I have been shooting close to sunset seems like the wind dies down a little towards evening
 
Thats Funny, when I was a kid I always shot downwind thinking that it will have no effect on it cause the bullet is moving faster than the wind, LOL.

t/c223encore.
 
I can see how a bullet COULD hit high in a headwind. Bullets trajectory is angled slightly up causing the headwind to create lift on the lower half of the bullet while the top half is not directly being hit by the wind. ....OK maybe that's hogwash, just a thought
 
Back
Top