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As a bit of a follow on from reading the wind without flags. I used a Skywatch Xplorer 3 Wind Meter for a few years however it has now packed up so should I replace it, are they really worth using for long range shooting? I used my old one as much for confirming wind speed if I was flying a kite, or more accuratly confirming the wind was too strong and I was about to be bounced down the beach.

I did use it occasionaly for shooting as well, mostly as a start reference if it was range that was new to me or if the conditions seemed odd however at best they tell you what the wind is doing right now at the point your are standing at.

So does anyone have any views on wind meters, worth getting or hold onto my hard earned?

Are they worth it? No, is my immediate answer.

Knowing that most of the shooting that you do is on Military ranges and not stalking, you can get sufficient information from the wind flags to get you on paper with the first shot -assuming all the other variables are correctly taken into consideration.

I have to remember that you do spend a week a year over seas and I do not know what their ranges are like, but with the cost of wind meters I doubt you could justify buying one to use at the beginning of the day 5 days a year.

Of course many wind meters also include other features which at first glance appear attractive or you could fool yourself are necessary to the shooter. But as already covered in another post, altitude is not an issue in the UK no matter where you are. Most cars have temperature gauges and should your old Panzer not, your phone probably does have access - certainly my Mil dot app down loads local details automatically and applies them to the solution.

I should not comment on the hunting scene as I do not hunt, but unlike the USA, I believe that few shots in the UK are taken at any great distance, I would imagine that the variables are unlikely to move the POI much with a well zeroed rifle combo, certainly I would be much more worried about if the scope had been knocked than what the wind was doing - within reason.

So unless you are shooting for a Government organisation, or are free lancing, and your first shot is critical, and you may be shooting in an urban environment with no wind indicators, I would suggest that you spend (or save is an option) the money on bullets and keep practising.

You may ask why do I have one then? Well I was fooled into thinking that I had to have one, but I did not pay full price for mine, I got mine from a overseas dealer, who was knocking them out really cheap at a time when the Dollar was 3 to 1 GBP. Should you put the wind meter into the "would be nice to own" category, then save the model that you want on eBay and wait and see if a SH model comes up for sale at a price you consider to be good. I have currently 3 saved searches and I get weakly notifications re new listings which saves me manually looking.
(Is also how I got my range finder)

DM

If you don't shoot long-range competitively, then a wind-meter isn't necessary but, if say you shoot F/TR and your first (of only two) sighter of the day is at 1000 yards and the wind is howling, you need all the help you can get!

On an un-familiar range - like Blair Atholl - the flags can be very difficult to interpret.

The six-foot square target is just three and a half minutes from a bull to a miss - a light (5 mph) crosswind will have you off the target!

You take a blind stab at your windage estimate and shoot - it's a miss! But which side did you miss on? Too much or not enough windage? One sighter left........oh for a wind-meter!

A wind-meter and one of Dougie Lorimer's whizz-wheels are my best friends in such conditions.

Vince

ovenpaa wrote:So does anyone have any views on wind meters, worth getting or hold onto my hard earned?

What you need is a wind meter that you can pop on the mantle just infront of the target, and transmits the info back to a reciever at the point - the good thing about this, would be that if you were doing 'batch testing' ...then people could take bets on which lasts longest...the wind meter, or the chrono :P

Dangermouse wrote:Are they worth it? No, is my immediate answer.

Knowing that most of the shooting that you do is on Military ranges and not stalking, you can get sufficient information from the wind flags to get you on paper with the first shot -assuming all the other variables are correctly taken into consideration.
DM

Military ranges don't have wind flags ...

I use a wind meter when shooting 1,000 yard snaps on Stickledown. I measure the wind value across the range rather than from its actual direction and use that to get my first shot on the board (my handload requires 1MOA windage per 10mph wind).

Was it worth spending £140 to do that? probably not, but you can't have too many gadgets

Hello,
Have you seen the new Kestrel 4500? It has NV, Horus ballistics software and Bluetooth (only 30' range thou) built in! A bit pricey at approx £300.00

Any tips on which wind meter to go for? I have no use for the Kestrel Horus as I have my own drops and I use BulletFlight both of which work nicely. I see someone is selling the Kestrel 4000 for GBP125 plus postage which is very cheap and they have a 5 year warranty with them as well

scoobydoo wrote: (my handload requires 1MOA windage per 10mph wind).

Ooops, I meant 1MOA per 1mph wind

scoobydoo wrote:

scoobydoo wrote: (my handload requires 1MOA windage per 10mph wind).

Ooops, I meant 1MOA per 1mph wind

Heh! I just spotted that and was about to ask what it was

is this any use dave?