How much does cross wind affect pattern

G

gostovp

New member
Hello, new member here...been lurking for awhile but this is my first post. Thanks in advance for the help!
I've just gotten into coyote hunting here in Western WI...first started out trying to call the dogs into the fields but never had any luck...talked to some experienced hunters and they said I'll have better luck by getting into the thick stuff and using a shotgun.
So, I've decided to try and use my 12g Benelli M2 American with a 26" barrel (the version w/o the comfortech stock). I have a Benelli .665 Turkey choke (which is actually Precision Hunter Extended choke from TruLock). I picked up some 3" Dead Coyote T Shot from my Local shop. Now, this stuff is super pricey so I only took one shot on the patterning board at 40 yards from a seating position off of shooting sticks sighting right down the barrel and putting the bead right on the target. Target was a 12" Shoot N See. I had 10 hits on the target, but upon inspection, the center of the pattern was 6-7" left...if it was centered on the target I would have had 20+ hits (15 hits just off the left of the target..)...I will take a pic and post it later...
Now, granted, I only took one shot, and it was from shooting sticks, not a bench, but I felt like I had a solid hold and squeezed the trigger just like I would a rifle...

There was however about a 8 to 10 mph crosswind that was directly perpendicular to my shot (wind was blowing right to left). Would this amount of wind be enought to push the shot a few inches to the left?

Couple other items..I've never noticed any other patterns that centered left when patterning with other chokes and loads (patterning 4's and 6's fpr turkey loads or patterning smaller shot for pheasants, etc...)...however when I've shot slugs they always seem to pattern left...
 
I doubt the wind is the culprit here. You either pulled the shot just slightly or the point of impact is ever so slightly different from point of aim. The POI vs. POA conflict happens more than many folks are aware of. In your case only careful patterning will provide the answers. As an example for comparison it is pretty hard to decide what load groups best in your deer rifle if you only fire one round to compare that load with others and just about as hard to get that scoped deer rifle sighted in with only one single shot fired on target. You just have to grim and bear it - shoot a few more patterns with your shotgun to determine exactly what is happening on the target.
 
The point of aim and impact are not the same on most guns.
You have to learn this and adjust.
That is why you have to zero a rifle and shotguns really are not that much different.
At that short of a range wind doesn't have the effect.. Even at 100yrds with a 223 I wouldn't expect to see a 10" drift with that wind.
Make sure you are behind the gun and tight. get behind thatgun and get comfortable, doing so with a closed eye will tell you where your natural point of aim is. Find a way to adjust the sights so that your natural position behind the gun and it's line of sight are automatic and then adjust those sights to match the point of impact. This effort may take time.. But will save you a bunch of misses in the future.
 
Only time I have noticed wind drift when shotgunning is useing steel shot in 30+ mph winds when duck hunting. But steel is light enough to get affected by wind.
 
Thanks for the responses. I will spend more time and $ on the patterning board and see what happens.
One of the reasons I asked this questions is because I found this
http://www.gunsmoke.com/guns/1022/22drift_cross.html

This table shows a 40gr 22 lr will move .6 inches at 40 yards a 10 mp cross wind..I figured a round ball traveling at about the same speed, with 1/2 the weight (or less) and a not spinning due to rifling may exibit more pronounced drift...

Either way I gotta shoot it some more!

Thanks for the responses!
 
Ok so I used Hornady’s online ballistic calculator to try and figure out how much a pellet could drift in the crosswind.

Wikipedia listed lead shot grain weights for T shot…12 grains per pellet..Hevi shot is about 10% heavier…so I estimated 14 gr per pellet

Also, finding the ballistic coefficient for a sphere launched at a slow speed was kind of tough, but I did find some examples of #4 buck BC of around 0.033 using the G1 BC model.…doing some extrapolation I came up w/ a BC between 0.026 and 0.030 for T shot…so I used the ‘best case’ of 0.030…

I put in the variables in the calculator w/ a wind speed of 10mph, and at 50 yards, the drift in inches is almost 6 inches! Yikes!
 
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