Thread: Wind reading accuracy while hunting

It's quite hard to tell. Animals move, turn, and contort. How big is the kill zone? Gusts and swirls can make a split second differences. The shooting position is sometimes less than the ideal benchrest conditions you would need to measure what the wind was after the fact and see how precise you were. Can you then confirm that you didn't just stuff up the shot? I've seen people miss and blame imaginary wind for it when their rifle was simply canted over. Were you actually holding where you thought you were holding on the animal? Will you be able to tell upon autopsy whether the shot drifted a couple inches further left or right than expected and that it was actually due to wind and wind alone? What are the ballistics like on your ammo?

I'll take a shot in moderate winds out to medium range, so long as I'm using a slippery bullet that's going to give the widest possible margin for error to help make me look good. I don't think I've ever tried to quantify how accurate my wind calls have been under field conditions.