Hope this isn't too off-topic....
On the rare occasions when we get 'no wind' conditions up here, there's something else out there ready to bite you. Take this for what it's worth, as it's just my observations and attempt to describe what happens. I could be totally wrong about this. Okay, here goes:
The late Dan Hackett described it to me as slow, rolling mirage. You can't really see it, but it's there. I believe there are different layers/blobs of air density that slowly tumble across the range in these 'no wind' conditions. In good light, this can be seen as the rings on the target fade in/out as the blobs slowly tumble by. In overcast conditions, it's almost impossible to see. Off-focusing your spotting scope can at times help you pick it up between the firing line and the target. Some, like Randy Robinett, are absolute masters of the slow, rolling mirage condition.
It's effect can be particularly snotty when the firing line is elevated such as at the Holmen, Wi. range where we need 12'-15' flag poles in the middle of the 100 yd. range. And even though we aren't shooting into the dip of the range, the air density is different there than up higher. Anyone that's ever ridden a mororcycle will know how different the air feels when you drop down into a dip...it gets cooler, more dense. And while these densities are layered, it's not like the division between layers is exact and well defined. They intermingle and bubble along like The Blob in the old Steve McQueen movie. It's my belief that these rolling blobs of density are what turn the flags when there is no apparent wind across the range.
This last season we had these exact conditions at Holmen, Wi. for the June IBS Score Two Gun event. Sunday morning had had z-e-r-o winds and bright, sunny skies for the 100 yd. VfS yardage. My sighter on the warmup showed that conditions were just what I had feared...shots dropping out, popping up and hanging out the sides for no apparent reason on the flags. If I shot a three shot group as fast as I could on the sighter, they would all go into a tiny hole about .150-.180 or so. So I messed around on the sighter trying something I'd been wanting to use in these conditions and decided to shoot the yardage that way unless the winds picked up.
It seemed to work as I shot a 250-24X to win the 100 yd. and set a new range record. Mike Bigelow and Craig Nagel were right behind me with 22X and 21X's...they may have been doing the same thing.
There were only five shooters who shot 250's at 100 yds. in this apparent 'trigger pull' condition.
Scary...... I'm glad our average daytime wind speed here is 16 mph. Our 24 hr. wind speed (day and night) average is 13 mph. A little breeze cleans up all that tricky mirage.
Thanks for keeping us updated on you work with this, Jerry. Always great to follow your work and results.
Good shootin'. -Al
On the rare occasions when we get 'no wind' conditions up here, there's something else out there ready to bite you. Take this for what it's worth, as it's just my observations and attempt to describe what happens. I could be totally wrong about this. Okay, here goes:
The late Dan Hackett described it to me as slow, rolling mirage. You can't really see it, but it's there. I believe there are different layers/blobs of air density that slowly tumble across the range in these 'no wind' conditions. In good light, this can be seen as the rings on the target fade in/out as the blobs slowly tumble by. In overcast conditions, it's almost impossible to see. Off-focusing your spotting scope can at times help you pick it up between the firing line and the target. Some, like Randy Robinett, are absolute masters of the slow, rolling mirage condition.
It's effect can be particularly snotty when the firing line is elevated such as at the Holmen, Wi. range where we need 12'-15' flag poles in the middle of the 100 yd. range. And even though we aren't shooting into the dip of the range, the air density is different there than up higher. Anyone that's ever ridden a mororcycle will know how different the air feels when you drop down into a dip...it gets cooler, more dense. And while these densities are layered, it's not like the division between layers is exact and well defined. They intermingle and bubble along like The Blob in the old Steve McQueen movie. It's my belief that these rolling blobs of density are what turn the flags when there is no apparent wind across the range.
This last season we had these exact conditions at Holmen, Wi. for the June IBS Score Two Gun event. Sunday morning had had z-e-r-o winds and bright, sunny skies for the 100 yd. VfS yardage. My sighter on the warmup showed that conditions were just what I had feared...shots dropping out, popping up and hanging out the sides for no apparent reason on the flags. If I shot a three shot group as fast as I could on the sighter, they would all go into a tiny hole about .150-.180 or so. So I messed around on the sighter trying something I'd been wanting to use in these conditions and decided to shoot the yardage that way unless the winds picked up.
It seemed to work as I shot a 250-24X to win the 100 yd. and set a new range record. Mike Bigelow and Craig Nagel were right behind me with 22X and 21X's...they may have been doing the same thing.
There were only five shooters who shot 250's at 100 yds. in this apparent 'trigger pull' condition. Scary......
I'm glad our average daytime wind speed here is 16 mph. Our 24 hr. wind speed (day and night) average is 13 mph. A little breeze cleans up all that tricky mirage. Thanks for keeping us updated on you work with this, Jerry. Always great to follow your work and results.
Good shootin'. -Al
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