How to Reliably Account For Wind On Long Range Shots

Long-range shooting is a thrill, whether at a target or hunting. However, the longer in distance your shot is, the more variables you have to account for. The wind is one of those factors that requires significant consideration.

Wind is the biggest variable that can throw off a long-distance shot, and how much that influences your accuracy varies on the ammunition and firearm you’re using.

For now, we’ll just focus on wind influence, so don’t worry about the advanced physics involved in calculating the curvature of the earth to make a mile-long bullseye. For these kinds of long-distance targets, we’ll go with the range of 500 - 1,000-yard shots.

How Much Does Wind Matter?

Wind matters a lot, especially at longer distances. Drifting a few inches at 300 yards may result in over two feet of drift when shooting at 750 yards if you don’t apply an accurate wind hold. In general, crosswinds are much more influential on ammunition in flight than head or tailwinds.

Wind Speed and Direction

The first step in determining how the wind will influence accuracy is finding out how hard the wind is blowing and from what direction. Some do this by feel, but many people aren’t as accurate as they think they are using this method. A wind meter comes in handy as an objective and relatively affordable device for exact wind speed measurement.

The direction the wind is blowing can affect bullets in flight differently. Each direction is correlated with a value to put into your ballistics equation, depending on the position. Usually, a clock reference is used rather than using cardinal directions.

A cross wind at 90 degrees is considered full effect, and anything oblique between that and a head or tail wind is a partial value to that effect when using this in calculations. 

Calculating Wind Constant and Correction

There are a number of different calculators online that you can use to determine a precise wind value based on the accuracy of the information you put into them. After determining the wind constant, you can hold that correction using Mils, MOA, or MRAD adjustments or adjust using a windage knob.

Calculating a wind constant is interesting at best. Different countries even have different constant values for their own calculations, and the constants can change based on the caliber of round you’re shooting with.

The general formula to calculate for MOA corrections is the Range (in 100s) x Wind Speed (MPH); this total is divided by the math constant (based on yardage).

The USMC uses an old formula from when the 1903-A3 Springfield was in commission, where the constant 15 is used for distances 500 yards or less and 11 for 1,000 yards. So, if we’re shooting at 1,000 yards, in 10 MPH winds at full effect, our formula would look like this:

10 x 10 = 100/11 = 9.09 MOA

If you’re not using MOA and instead using Mils, multiply your MOA value by .3 to get your mils.

A little trick that some experienced shooters use is to use the constant 12 for 500-900 yard distances; ultimately, there might be 1- 2 inches of drift by using the “incorrect” constant. You’ll see a much larger error by incorrectly estimating the wind speed by comparison.

Holding for Wind vs. Windage Knobs

Windage knobs and holding for wind are two ways to account for these needed corrections we just calculated. Unfortunately, wind can change quickly, and windage knob adjustment can just take too long. Holding against wind is a quicker way to account for wind without needing to dial and redial your scope.

The speed of your follow-up shots matters the most if your first shot was off more than you anticipated. If you’re constantly dialing, the wind will end up shifting too much, and you likely won’t be able to correct fast enough to account for it.

So, if we’re using mils to account for our hold, the wind is at 90 degrees from the west, and we need 1 mil of compensation, we would hold our view 1 mil to the left in our scope, pull the trigger, and see where that lands us.

Closing Thoughts

There’s a lot of math once you get into long-range shooting, especially accounting for wind. It helps to think of this type of shooting more as an art, and the more you practice the more you’re able to naturally estimate your own wind holds without writing everything down on a pad and paper.

Invest in a good wind meter, practice, and remember each rifle and round you use at these distances will have different feels until you get used to each of them, and make sure to enjoy yourself out there.

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