The Wind Hack — Quick Way to Calculate Crosswind Deflection
Applied Ballistics Wind Hack
Any long range shooter knows that wind is our ultimate nemesis. The best ways of overcoming wind are to measure what we can and use computers to calculate deflection. The Applied Ballistics Kestrel is a great tool for this. As good as our tools may be, we don’t always have them at our fingertips, or they break, batteries go dead, and so on. In these cases, it’s nice to have a simple way of estimating wind based on known variables. There are numerous wind formulas of various complexity.
The Applied Ballistics (AB) Wind Hack is about the simplest way to get a rough wind solution. Here it is: You simply add 2 to the first digit of your G7 BC, and divide your drop by this number to get the 10 mph crosswind deflection. For example, suppose you’re shooting a .308 caliber 175-grain bullet with a G7 BC of 0.260 at 1000 yards, and your drop is 37 MOA. For a G7 BC of 0.260, your “wind number” is 2+2=4. So your 10 mph wind deflection is your drop (37 MOA) divided by your “wind number” (4) = 9.25 MOA. This is really close to the actual 9.37 MOA calculated by the ballistic software.
WIND HACK Formula
10 mph Cross Wind Deflection = Drop (in MOA) divided by (G7 BC 1st Digit + 2)
Give the AB wind hack a try to see how it works with your ballistics!
Some Caveats: Your drop number has to be from a 100-yard zero. This wind hack is most accurate for supersonic flight. Within supersonic range, accuracy is typically better than +/-6″. You can easily scale the 10 mph crosswind deflection by the actual wind speed. Wind direction has to be scaled by the cosine of the angle.
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- Estimate Crosswind Deflection WITHOUT a Meter — WIND HACK
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Tags: Applied Ballistics, Bryan Litz, JBM, Kestrel, Supersonic, Wind Estimation, Wind Hack, Wind Meter
“Wind direction has to be scaled by the cosine of the angle.”
I think that this should read as “Wind speed has to be scaled by the cosine of the wind angle (direction).
The shooting range I shoot at is 200 yards from the sea and parallel with the shore.
It blows constantly, at 1000yards there would be different strengths all the way to the target. It tests the best of wind readers.
Let me know what you think. Wind hack formula converted for MILs:
10 mph Cross Wind Deflection = Drop (in MIL) divided by (G1 BC 1st Digit + 2)
The difference is you use drop in MILs and use the G1 BC instead of the G7. Checked it against my data and it worked.
Let me know what you think.