When is a wind meter necessary for shooting?

[IVC]

How far do you have to be shooting for a wind meter to be necessary?

Wind is not a number, it's a function - at every point along the bullet path you have direction and strength (it's just a velocity vector). A good way to visualize it is to look at weather charts showing various weather systems.

While weather systems are mostly important for vessels traveling long distances, what you'll experience shooting is not directly the weather system, but the effect of the ground that will make wind act in strange ways close to the surface. The wind direction and strength, though, will have similar "flow" and will change from point to point and from time to time. The stronger the wind and the more ground features you have, the more you will have local wind effects that can create all sorts of shifts. A single vortex close to the ground can shift wind 180 degrees within short distance.

Wind meter tells you wind at one location and in one direction. If you're measuring the wind at the location where you're shooting from that's all you have - wind strength (or cross-wind component of the wind) at your location at the time you're measuring. You don't have wind measurement at other locations, not even at the same location at slightly different time.

If the wind is shifting, something you can easily feel on your face, then even this single measurement doesn't tell you much. At best, you will know the prevailing wind conditions at the shooting location, but you still have to figure out when to shot and how the bullet will get affected along its trajectory. That's quite limited utility.

[IVC]

How far do you have to be shooting for a wind meter to be necessary?

But to answer your question, a wind meter will be more useful for *closer* range - if you're shooting 50 yards rimfire or 100-300 centerfire over flat(ish) land, you have a decent chance of wind not acting up too much, so knowing the speed at your shooting location can be a decent estimate of the wind nearby.

It's the opposite of what you expected, it is more useful for closer distances.

[audiophil2]

Wind meters and flags are almost useless at long distance.

At the rifle the wind has almost zero relevancy.
As you shoot very far flags won't help because they are along the ground.

A bullet leaves at an arch when you shoot long distance. If I remember correctly, my 1 mile shot with 6.5cm peaks at about 250ft above ground. There are no flags that high. Watching brush and grass move won't help either at long distance.

Under 1000 the arc is not as much so flags and grass help. Heat mirage helps too.

I don't bother with a wind meter. I have one but it is used 1% of the time compared to my 2000 yard range finder. A good range finder that corroborates a ranging reticle is more helpful.

[ar15barrels]

A bullet leaves at an arch when you shoot long distance. If I remember correctly, my 1 mile shot with 6.5cm peaks at about 250ft above ground. There are no flags that high.

You must be shooting over a canyon to get the bullet 250ft above the ground.
From a pure ballistics perspective, a 147gr ELDM going 2860fps will rise about 42 feet above line of sight and that peak will be at about 1035 yards.
NRA wind flags are usually around 20ft high so you technically correct, but the flags are still valuable even if they are half way to the ground from the bullet's peak because much of the bullet's flight is spent under or near the flag's height.

[trailblazer87]

I have a Kestrel, but mostly use it for the ballistic calculator. Now at my home range the ground is flat for a mile so the wind stays a consistent direction (almost always out of the north west) at 45 degrees to the range. At a friend's range in the hills, the 1200 yard target is through a lane in the trees. The bullets flight path takes the bullet above the tree line, so you may have a near calm down in the lane but a stiff breeze above. Have to read the tree tops.

So as Randall said, they can help learn the wind when starting out but you will learn it with practice.

[audiophil2]

You must be shooting over a canyon to get the bullet 250ft above the ground.
From a pure ballistics perspective, a 147gr ELDM going 2860fps will rise about 42 feet above line of sight and that peak will be at about 1035 yards.
NRA wind flags are usually around 20ft high so you technically correct, but the flags are still valuable even if they are half way to the ground from the bullet's peak because much of the bullet's flight is spent under or near the flag's height.

I'm sorry. I was thinking of the point of aim when I was shooting 1mile. I had a chart for the bullet arc but it's in storage. I think it was higher than 20 ft it no idea how much higher.

[TrappedinCalifornia]

As stated above, wind meters have their utility, but they have their limits and their utility needs to be judged with those limitations in mind. Thus, "necessary" has a floating, definitional parameter. Put another way, "train as you play and play as you train" has relevance in terms of how "necessary" one deems it to be. Let's just say that knowing the accuracy of the wind speed and direction at the muzzle is only one of a series of factors and nothing substitutes for time spent practicing.

[hambam105]

Most rifle training doesn't include reading the wind.

Learning to shoot up to the gun's intrinsic accuracy takes a lot of time & expense under ideal conditions; not outside changing conditions.

Think basics. And then Speed-Direction-Value.

[ar15barrels]

I'm sorry. I was thinking of the point of aim when I was shooting 1mile. I had a chart for the bullet arc but it's in storage. I think it was higher than 20 ft it no idea how much higher.

The maximum ordinate height is 42ft when using 2860fps with a 147 ELDM.
Other bullets or velocities or weather conditions will change it slightly but we are talking a couple percentage points, not orders of magnitude.
You are thinking from the line of departure (or the bore centerline), not the line of aim.
The line of departure is where the barrel is pointed.
The line of aim is the straight path from your eye to the point of aim and is obviously different than the line of departure as we have to aim the barrel upwards to account for bullet drop to hit our target at distances beyond the point where the bullet first crosses the line of aim.
Or maybe you are thinking of the total drop but the total drop is simply the inverse of the line of departure as the values are the same and only the reference angle is changed.
Total drop assumes a level bore and shows drop below the line of bore.
If you want to see the bullet going above the line of sight and then back down to the aiming point, then you are leveling the line of sight and letting the trajectory plot the arc how the actual bullet flies.



The barrel is pointed 120ft higher than the target at 1 mile distance, but the bullet never gets anywhere near that high as gravity won't let it.

[cz74]

I only see precision rimfire competitors are my local range using wind devices at 50 yard targets.

[hambam105]

NRA High Power Rifle shooters are cut from a different cloth than Small Bore and especially, dare I say, Air Gun competitors.

[that one guy]

I have a lot to learn.