Wind Flags in Slow Motion — You’ll Be Surprised
Photo of Aussie Wind Flags courtesy BRT Shooters Supply.
Our Aussie friend Stuart Elliot of BRT Shooters Supply recently filmed some interesting videos at the QTS range in Brisbane, Australia. Stuart told us: “I was shooting in an Air Gun Benchrest match here in Brisbane, Australia. I finished my target early and was awaiting the cease fire and took a short, slow-motion video of windflag behavior.” You may be surprised by the velocity changes and angle swings that occur, even over a relatively short distance (just 25 meters from bench to target).
Here are windflags in slow motion:
The flags show in the videos are “Aussie Wind Flags”, developed by Stuart Elliot. These are sold in the USA by Butch Lambert, through Shadetree Engineering.
Here is a video in real time:
Stuart says this video may surprise some shooters who don’t use windflags: “Many people say the wind doesn’t matter. Well it sure does — whether for an airgun at 25 meters or a long range centerfire at 1,000.” This video illustrates how much the wind can change direction and velocity even in a small area.
Similar Posts:
- Slow Motion Wind-Flag Videos Reveal Whims of the Wind
- Dance of the Aussie Windflags — Slow-Motion Windflag Videos
- The Whims of the Wind — Slow-Motion Windflag Video
- Tips for Using Wind-Flags
- Wind Flag Balance Tips
Tags: Air Rifle, AirGun, Australia, Benchrest, Flags, Stuart Elliot, Windflag, Windshift
Excellent subject and videos. Learning how to understand what your wind flags are trying to tell you is one of the most important skills that a shooter needs to acquire. It is a lot more complex than one might expect, and there is no substitute for on the range experience. It is like learning a musical instrument in that no matter how much you read, you sill only really learn how to do it by actual practice. I always smile when some shooter posts that he only tests when there is no wind. From that I can tell that he does not own a set of flags.
Excellent subject and something all shooters need to practice as much as they can. I don’t completely agree with what Boyd says above that ‘he can tell someone doesn’t own flags if they only test when there is no wind’. In my experience testing/load development is best done with the least amount of wind as possible to illuminate that wind factor, practice on the other hand should be in all kinds of conditions.
This is why standard wind flags aren’t good enough. They leave far to much wind information undefined. The problem is their basic design. They are not capable of displaying up/down wind pressure and not capable of displaying cross wing intensity either. Sensitive equals twitching, jerking and consistent movement. Utube shows two identical wind flags facing each other with the propellers spinning and streamers flowing. Which one do you believe????
Just a follow-up. I was not surprised. I have been building wind flags and shooting accessories for over twenty years. I have always subjected them to extensive testing in a controlled environment to prove my concepts. Basically an interior room with a fan at 10 feet. I cleared the room of any obstructions that could affect the actions of the wind. Wind energy and consistently always varied, even with the changing of the fan speed and direction. The flag always followed the actual direction of the wind, it never was completely stable. I was able to minimize this action through design. To prove my point, I purchased three different wind flags and all were no better. What can we expect at an outdoor range? You should experiment to understand your flag’s actual reaction and not be surprised at the range.