The conditions prevalent during the match and aggregate often dictate the technique used to shoot a group.

Slow Fire Technique.

This is used on those still mornings or evenings when there is the barest of wind movement and you'll have no problem getting off all the shots in the time limit. Aim at exactly the same place for each shot, be aware of disturbing the sandbags as little as possible during reloading. Carefully adjust the crosshairs with the screw on the front pedestal before the next shot. Wait for the exact same amount of flag deflection before pulling the trigger again.

Some use this style in just the opposite condition, the day when the wind is so strong the flags spend most of their time doing a clothesline imitation. Again, the rifle is settled and the shot isn't fired till the proper amount of sag shows on a key flag. On the really windy days a ribbon gets overpowered. The best thing then is wind socks like Bob DeMonstoy of Painted Post, New York uses. A perfect example of the slow fire technique during an early morning calm occurred the first time I shot 300 yards, at the Stittsville range, in Ontario, Canada. It was an overcast day; during the warm up match there was the faintest amount of wind movement from 4:00 over our shoulders. After two sighter shots touched, the first two record shots were carefully squeezed off: they formed a small dot in the top half of the 300 yard bull. Taking my time, very carefully reloading and returning to battery, adjusting the rear bag for perfect aim the third shot didn't make the hole any bigger. Repeat the process and the fourth shot went into the same bug hole. There's now a square four shot hole at 300 yards that measures .263". Even in a 36X Leupold that looks tiny. Being a rookie, I made a rookie mistake and jumped from the bench in excitement after the fourth shot. By the time I settled back at the bench for the fifth shot the calm was gone, a very slight strengthening of the wind over the shoulder influenced the last shot to produce an officially measured .520" group. Still, a fine effort and good use of the slow fire technique. By the way, ask Fletcher Williams who shot the second smallest group that day.

Rapid Fire Technique

The second major shooting technique is rapid fire. The keys are.

The best piece of advice for a good rapid fire group is to start in the right condition. Test conditions in the warm up and early in the match. Go with a winner. Fletcher Williams got into a condition a few years ago at the Super Shoot. He plunked down three good groups at 200 yards and exclaimed more than once to all who would listen (and a few who wouldn't) "I'm going to run that condition if it kills me". As I recall he had to search for it, but found a hole after those last two groups and thumped us proper that day.

He did what a lot of competitors do, especially at 200. Run a record string during a wind trend. This is the build, peak, decline cycle. If the first shot is at the start of a cycle the aim is adjusted into the pickup for the next shot. Slightly more into additional pickup for the third shot, hold back out as the wind decreases and then as the condition dies the same hold as the first shot for the last. Four different aiming points produce one hole on the edge of the bull.

This process of holding off is especially important when working with the sighter during your string. It's whether to hold off the full value as shown on the sighter or less than that amount. It's a matter of attitude. Do you want to win, or place in the top 50%. To win at the National level you need to trust your equipment and judgement of the flags. At 200 yards if the flags and sighter say to hold on the eight ring, two inches away from the group, be confident and do it. Using my skeletal aluminum stocked Light Varmint I shot a five shot 200 yard group of. 134" at Johnstown, New York in 1985. Early in a match the first three record shots were in a left to right trickle, they piled into a dot just outside the 10 ring. Through a 36X scope the group was estimated at less than .200". Then came a full reverse that lasted several minutes. Sighter testing showed this a perfect condition also, though from another direction. The new impact point was on the opposite side of the moth ball. Holding on the outside of the eight ring I piled in the last two shots in a complete reverse. To prove it wasn't a fluke the three sighter shots to test the new condition measure .155" at 200 yards. Practice, gain confidence, hold the full value and work for the best group possible.

Lost Shots Before or During the Group

Displaced shots are the nemesis of group shooting. They can come from poor equipment, technique, or missed conditions. Here we'll discuss the ones caused by the wind. If a shot is fired it's expected to go into the group. Very few triggers get pulled to ruin things on purpose. When they don't go in there are several things to do

When the first shot in the string pops up a good group can still be saved by chasing with subsequent shots. Check with a sighter shot and make sure the new point of impact isn't from a wind condition change you missed. If you chase a high shot without checking and put another even higher there's no one to blame but the loose nut behind the butt. Shooting in the 1982 IBS Nationals I had Heavy Varmint 100 sewn up through four groups. In windy and switching conditions I wasted a .169" on the warm up. The first four record matches were .224", .212", .158", and .254". I knew if I threw down another .250" it would be an easy victory. Shooting from the dangerous, upwind, bench one; Pete Rechnitzer - another lefty sat next to me on bench number two for that fifth match. The first record shot popped up above the moth ball when all previous shots had been below the moth ball. I slammed two sighters down to check it and they went into that high area. Back to the record target, and firing rapidly, the next two went into a tiny hole to make a . 100" three shot group. The fourth dropped straight out the bottom to about .300" and the fifth blew me out of the water when it went down to the original impact point and made a group of .374". Fourth place in the aggregate at the Nationals isn't so bad. Well, yes it is when the opportunity for first slips by on the fifth shot. It turned out Pete had been watching the flags while I ran the string. He pointed out the flags that turned while I was speeding without a license. The moral of the story is: I started the group without knowing which flags had caused the impact point to move above the mothball, with closer attention the group and aggregate could easily have been saved.

When the impact moves left or right a flag down range will usually explain the movement and it's easy to chase the shot. If your observation says the shot should impact the group and it doesn't you have some work to do. Use the sighter to find the indicator that explains that shot.

Adjusting to Changing Conditions

Several specific types of conditions could appear during the course of a shoot. A match is a trigger pull when an overcast sky and very light breezes let you aim at the same place for every shot. In these matches you feel you're losing ground on the leaders if the target comes back a .229" at 100 or .545" at 200. In equipment shoots like this take time to settle your rifle completely. If a shot gets touched off with the crosshairs slightly out of the group the target scorer won't let you try again.

Conditions go from the easy trigger pull up to the most difficult. The most difficult are rapidly swirling gusts where mirage keeps sighter and record shots from being visible. Lots of different conditions are available. The key to adapting to the days conditions is being aware of what's possible during a relay, and what are the prevailing conditions. Go to the line before your relay. Study wind direction and velocity, time the wind cycles. How long does a gust take to switch, build, peak, decline, and switch. Would you get off five shots? three? two? Pick the predominant condition and test it on the sighter. Sometimes here are the good groups easily, although much of the time the shorter non-normal condition is gentler and gives the better group. If that's the case you'll have to test your nerve and wait for it, and wait, and wait. Know how long you can delay and still finish the string. One minute forty five seconds, one minute, forty seconds? KNOW the limit by testing with a stopwatch. I use an inexpensive Casio sports watch with a built in forward and reverse timer in it. Have your stopwatch at the bench and running during all matches. The range officer doesn't always give the commands on time. The stopwatch makes your willingness to wait calculated rather than a gamble. NBRSA gives no finishing commands other than two minutes, one minute and cease fire. How can you wait those last few precious seconds on a decreasing condition if you don't know how much time is left? When shooting NBRSA matches I set the alarm to go off five seconds before the cease fire command. Then if I hear it I know it's time to pull the trigger no matter what the wind is doing.

Repeat your observations and calculations during the day. The best time killer during the five relays at the Super Shoot is to pick a few good shooters from each relay. Select some who shoot the same bench rotation; watch them through a spotting scope before your relay for invaluable information. You can usually tell where they held each shot by following the sighter. I'm easy to watch. Before any record shots I'll test on the sighter. Anytime a record string gets interrupted there is always a sighter shot to check impact before another record. Allie Euber is tough to watch, he's a good enough wind doper he patterns the conditions early and doesn't always check the sighter late in the relay, even when you know he's firing in conditions he hasn't been using. Jerry Masker isn't a good choice, poor eyesight has forced him to become a marvelous wind doper who rarely goes back for sighter shots. (Allie calls him one of the best wind dopers ever, high praise indeed.) Lester Bruno shoots so many sighters you can't tell which mean anything. I like to follow him anyway. High drama unfolds at the end of the relay when he runs out of time. Watching also gives the opportunity to observe switches the shooter doesn't catch after they dip their head to the scope. (Keep the off eye open.) You don't make any friends though by going up to them afterwards and saying: "Boy are you dumb, I saw that switch just before you shot". Some of my other favorites to watch include Don Geraci, Gary Ocock, Bob White, Myles Hollister, PJ Hart, Doc Maretzo, Dennis Wagner, Lowell Frei and whichever cute entrants Doc Palmisano brought.

The Tomball range near Houston, Texas is notorious for starting the day left to right, out of the cool trees, and ending right to left, across the baked flats. When things switch figure out where your best group is and go get it.

Uncommon Wind Indicators

For the same reasons shooters go to the line early and observe prevalent conditions you have to expand your focus to include some uncommon indicators. I can still picture Phil Sauer at the 1982 IBS National. He would stand behind the line at Kelbly's, rocked backed the way he likes, with a studious expression looking down range at the variables in the wind pattern. (You can use big words like variable and studious when you speak of an experimenter like Phil.) His study that year yielded the Three-Gun Crown.

The classic example of uncommon indicators has been repeated many times. A shooter waits for a strand of grass in front of the target to bend just the correct amount and a winning group appears while those around him shoot wailing wall rejects (also called shotgun patterns, weather reports, @#%*X!V&* etc). Let's open our horizons even further. How many of you look at the trees far up range on a gusty day to see when a calm will hold for thirty seconds. This works at Kelbly's range in Ohio. Two groves of trees several hundred yards upwind have helped me out on numerous occasions (this must mean the wind blows in Ohio if I've needed them on several occasions). Camillus, New York is another range where the line of trees that extends far upwind can keep trouble at bay. Sitting next to Wally Hart in a varmint match at Camillus I was happy as a clam waiting for a slack to come in. With no shots on record and time running down Wally suggested I glance way up range. Looking up, trees were bent over from an approaching cloudburst, fingers blurred, and the brass sparkled as it flew through the air. The Black Canyon Range north of Phoenix, Arizona has a big bore range several hundred yards upwind. Those 20 foot high range flags are a perfect indicator of conditions on their way.

When you're shooting on the down wind side of the range the best time to start a string is when the flags from up wind switch over and steady in the angle and velocity you've been looking for. The upwind range flags give plenty of warning about intensity increases or decreases, all you have to watch out for is reverses sneaking in from the back side.

A favorite tip is listening to the moans and groans of those around you. If your neighbor screams, pulls his hair, curses, and throws his bolt down range don't touch off a shot. Let the gust, letup, or mirage boil settle and throw a few sighter shots down range. (Speaking of throwing things - once I left an MTM box, full of 6BR cases, on top of the Camillus clubhouse roof.)

Be aware of the swirls and eddies around you. Breeze from behind hasn't had a chance to move flags but can be the most important on its influence on bullet flight. Topography influences wind in the same fashion the ground influences water. Thermal influences dictate that conditions generally move downhill in the cooler evening, and morning hours. Then when there's enough warming the conditions tend to move uphill. This changeover presents a completely different set of patterns for the shooter. By being observant you'll notice a few other peculiarities. In a protected range like Johnstown a light breeze moving from left to right will spill over the top of the trees, then eddy back towards the base of the trees with a few moments of reverse for the first ten benches, before the condition strengthens enough to wash out the eddy and show left to right over the whole range. The same thing happens around large man made objects. The Central Jersey range, Kelbly's, and New Braunfels all show the same effect. Boy does it drive you nuts when you don't know what's causing it, or when it's not readable.

Read this chapter several times. Understanding the effect of wind on a bullet is the most important item in the book for a beginning accuracy buff. Once you believe in the wind moving the bullet half the task of a good aggregate is completed.

Coming Next Month:

Chapter 10: "Wind Flags" To obtain a full printed copy of this book, please call Stoeger Publishing at 1-877-GUNBOOK or visit their website at www.stoegerpublishing.com