How often windage adjustment during hunting?

[lancetkenyon]

I dial for elevation, but like most others, I never dial for wind. Always hold off. Whether shooting steel, paper, rocks, or meat.

 

[JD284win]

I second the Zeiss V4. I have the 6-24x50. Easy and fast reticle. Dial elevation and hold wind. Wind can shift in a heart beat. You don't want to be dialed into one wind call. Even competitive shooters hold wind vs dialing. No mater the scope and reticle you choose. Shoot shoot and shoot. The reticle will become auto pilot for wind holds.

 

[Ua26fitter]

I hold for wind and elevation to about 500 yards. After that only dial elevation.

Kris

 

[vancewalker007]

Long time reader, new to forum and getting into hunting big game. I have some scope questions for you veteran hunters. I'm looking to scope my new Tikka 300WM. I'm torn between two scopes I narrowed down. I was planning on spending about $1200. I also considered Meopta, Vortex, Leica, Steiner, Athlon, but only my two choices have most of the turret features I liked. I wish a scope manufacturer would make exposed, but locking turrets on both elevation and windage. This will be for all capable ranges for the rifle as my skill and confidence improves.

Leupold VX5 3-15x56 metric. Locking elevation. Capped windage. I was thinking of metric to match my tac rifle. The 44mm's don't come in metric (Not a deal breaker). I'm not used to scope caps and don't want to lose it or fumble with it on a quick shot. I am used to checking my scope dials before pulling the trigger.

Zeiss V4 4-16x50 moa. Open turrets, but at least the windage is locking.

How often do you actually adjust your windage on hunts? If often, I'm leaning toward the Zeiss. If not, I'm leaning toward the Leupold.
Are most of your shots early morning or late evening so the wind is usually calmer than mid day, so you don't adjust windage often, at least for closer range?
Do you usually have time to adjust windage or do you hold over?
Am I overthinking this or am I missing something?

Thanks for all your advice and experience! I've learned a ton from this forum.

Because we have hunted with older Second Focal Plane scopes with plain reticles for years we have always dialed wind calls. On shots where elevation adjustments are necessary we have always had time to make both an elevation and wind call and a lot of Coues bucks and elk have fallen as a result. So I know it can be done and it works.

Holding for wind is faster if you have to have the right gear, right settings, but you still have to call wind. If you are shooting a Second Focal Plane (SFP) scope the reticle hash marks are not the same at all powers, ie. 1 MOA reticle hash marks in an MOA based 4-24 SFP scope will be 1 MOA at 24 power and about .5 MOA at 12 power. You could pre-compute per scope power them but then that adds time to look at your power setting and then your hash gap sheet etc. So you could say I'm only shooting at full power or half then the hash marks are easier to use. Or, if you want the fastest wind hold solution simply use a First Focal Plane (FFP) scope, then the hash marks are a no brainer because they are the same at al powers. That's why most all the competitive shooters like PRS folks shoot First Focal scopes.

 

[dm406]

Long time reader, new to forum and getting into hunting big game. I have some scope questions for you veteran hunters. I'm looking to scope my new Tikka 300WM. I'm torn between two scopes I narrowed down. I was planning on spending about $1200. I also considered Meopta, Vortex, Leica, Steiner, Athlon, but only my two choices have most of the turret features I liked. I wish a scope manufacturer would make exposed, but locking turrets on both elevation and windage. This will be for all capable ranges for the rifle as my skill and confidence improves.

Leupold VX5 3-15x56 metric. Locking elevation. Capped windage. I was thinking of metric to match my tac rifle. The 44mm's don't come in metric (Not a deal breaker). I'm not used to scope caps and don't want to lose it or fumble with it on a quick shot. I am used to checking my scope dials before pulling the trigger.

Zeiss V4 4-16x50 moa. Open turrets, but at least the windage is locking.

How often do you actually adjust your windage on hunts? If often, I'm leaning toward the Zeiss. If not, I'm leaning toward the Leupold.
Are most of your shots early morning or late evening so the wind is usually calmer than mid day, so you don't adjust windage often, at least for closer range?
Do you usually have time to adjust windage or do you hold over?
Am I overthinking this or am I missing something?

Thanks for all your advice and experience! I've learned a ton from this forum.

Dial for elevation & hold off for wind. I use the Leupold vx5hd with wind plex

 

[mdruyle]

Another dial elevation, hold windage guy here.

 

[American_Wookie]

Dial elevation and hold windage, only time I've ever dialed windage is at the range off the lake with a constant wind. Do it Kentucky style and hold it out there. Plenty of ways to adjust via marks in scope. Really tough for any .30 under 300 yards and under 20mph I've found you don't need necessarily need to do that either. Now that said, it will be the difference between heart shot and lungs but at 300 yards .30cal you should be good for most game.

 

[stlk9cop]

I hold for wind. I dial for elevation depending on distance, but sometimes I just hold over.