Offhand in the wind?

[John Kepler]

I've had 2 guys get into the sport because they saw me all suited-up dry-firing in the backyard, and walked over from the church parking-lot to talk about what I was doing! All my neighbors know I'm a comp shooter, and are very comfortable with it.

[Andouille]

I'm a reasonably "good" offhand shooter and not "great" by any means. But what I do is this, and I've found it works for me on every range I've tried it on, including CP. I use Peltor "Combat Arms" earplugs, which are sound cancelling and block weapons fire, yet allow pretty close to normal sound to come thru. They probably don't work as well as the electronic muffs, but well enough for my purposes and the price is righter at $12 - $15. With them I can generally hear the gusts coming before they get to me, and shoot or hold fire accordingly. Using that method, my standing scores are relatively consistent regardless of wind, unless there's a gale blowing of course. Your mileage may vary......

[Jim in Salt Lake]

I would recommend that you take any opportunity to practice offhand, with any kind of rifle. My son and I have a game we play with .22's and bowling pins. We'll set the pins out at some distance, say 50 yards. I have a Pact timer I used to use in the old pin matches to time us. We each take a turn, one shot offhand, starting from a rifle at the rest position. When the timer beeps, you raise the rifle and take one shot at a pin. The fastest time wins, but you have to hit the pin or you score zero! We usually play 5 shots each and add the scores. It's a ton of fun and you should see the boy with his AR on the line at a match. I think its made a big difference with him and just gives him more incentive to dry fire. He likes to beat his old man at the pin game, and usually does about half the time. Makes me jealous of his steady hands and good eyes.

[jmoore]

Might try using a larger aperture in the front sight globe, you'll still naturally center the bull, but when blown off its easier to tell by how much. Its almost like a spring loaded thing for self correcting, rather than the "on-off" feel you get w/ a tight aperture, you will know by how much you are drifting. Try bigger peeps in calm condition until you find your "groups" opening up unacceptably, then run a touch smaller. As long as your scores improve in the wind it doesn't really matter how much worse your theoretical accuracy suffers. HTH

[High Plaines Doug r]

Might try using a larger aperture in the front sight globe, you'll still naturally center the bull, but when blown off its easier to tell by how much. Its almost like a spring loaded thing for self correcting, rather than the "on-off" feel you get w/ a tight aperture, you will know by how much you are drifting. Try bigger peeps in calm condition until you find your "groups" opening up unacceptably, then run a touch smaller. As long as your scores improve in the wind it doesn't really matter how much worse your theoretical accuracy suffers. HTH

That's a worthwhile experiment. I hate to complicate my routine by adding another aperture, but I might try a larger one in practice. So far, I've only gone the other way: too small an aperture made me jerk the trigger so I put in a bigger one. I never experimented to the point that a great big front aperture caused me to shoot worse.
My eyes are getting so bad I might not notice the next larger size.
Thanks for the input,
Doug

[jmoore]

Most of the new-fangled globes have a dial-a-size built in, so you don't worry about zero changes so much w/ these! (a bit pricey though, if you've a pile of front rings already)

[High Plaines Doug r]

Most of the new-fangled globes have a dial-a-size built in, so you don't worry about zero changes so much w/ these! (a bit pricey though, if you've a pile of front rings already)

"...pile of front rings already" Check.

[JBS]

Wind is not a big problem in my area until it is a big problem. My issue in the wind was stability. I discovered that if I wore flat soul shoes when the wind was up my stability was greatly improved. After I found this out I always took two pair of shoes to the match. My regular boots and a pair of flat souls shoes. I also went extra tight on my bottom buckle of my shooting coat.

[jmoore]

Ya, the smallbore (.22lr) shooters have flat bottom shoes that you can get w/ built in forward lean. ("agh" or some such name.) Champion's Choice sells 'em amongst others.

OT- Crazy dress up games! I'd like to see "loose fitting fatigues w/ or w/o body armor classes" incorporated into highpower! Shooting in your "street" clothes, that's more like it!