dealing with spin drift ?

porkchop401

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Joined
Dec 19, 2010
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326
Location
Fairview Alfa, Louisiana
How are you fellas dealing with spin drift?
1, dialing for it
2. holding for it
3. Offsetting your zero to counter it.
I have always dialed for it as my shooter program has directed me with great success.
I recently watched a long range hunting program where they were zerowing about a half moa to the left to counter the effects of spin drift . they was using the g7 rangefinder and to my knowledge it does not does not calculate spin drift .
My procedure is to feed the yardage in to the app and it spits out the drop and wind if I do not have data available I feed in the atmospheric conditions manually .
I was just wandering if the offset method was practical then I could fall back to a drop book and not rely on electronics as much.
 
Just one more thing I don't need to worry about especially during matches! I read somewhere that with the best long range bullets it's about an inch or two at 500 yards and two to four at 1000 yards....don't now how much merit there is in those numbers but I don't go crazy worrying about it...the way I see it an unforeseen puff of air causes me problems than drift and I'd bet that's how Imost shooters think about it. Wind drift,spin drift and the earth moving during time of flight...could cause me to drink more Coors light while nipping at a shot of Wild Turkey or Southern Comfort, maybe I will start worrying more then ..
 
I use the G7 for the bulk of my long range hunting and also make the simple mental calculation for my shots that grnerally don't exceed 1000-1200 yards. I use similar values to those mentioned. I will also use a mental adjusrment for coriolis which is a 3" correction is shooting full east or west at 1000 yards. Like Frank, I worry a whole lot more about wind.
 
Get out in field and discover for yourself.
My experience on the flattest of wind days. Using my rifle, loads and bullets. It really isn't noticeable until I get beyond 800 yards.
Its does need to be accounted for but only your real world experience will tell you how much.
 
I zero most of my rifles at 300y so drift is not very noticeable till about 1000. With that said I use spin drift in my ballistic calculator.

Steve
 
I account for spin drift using the Shooter ballistic App. I turn spin drift on in the app and it rolls it into the shooting solution. On long shots where it matters it is accounted for along with wind, which I always dial for rather than hold.
 
I account for spin drift using the Shooter ballistic App. I turn spin drift on in the app and it rolls it into the shooting solution. On long shots where it matters it is accounted for along with wind, which I always dial for rather than hold.

This is what I have been doing , I just want to see how other folks are dealing with it so that I may come up with a way, possibly minimizing the effects through my zero to a point that it is not a concern in the field. from what I have read I feel I may be splitting hair when shooting at deer size game . A 300yd zero is practical with a 7mm RM and would make it almost unperceivable at 1k at .4 moa with a 168 vld . I am not what you call a 1k yd hunter but I would not sweat a 700-800 yd shot at a deer in good conditions.
 
This is what I have been doing , I just want to see how other folks are dealing with it so that I may come up with a way, possibly minimizing the effects through my zero to a point that it is not a concern in the field. from what I have read I feel I may be splitting hair when shooting at deer size game . A 300yd zero is practical with a 7mm RM and would make it almost unperceivable at 1k at .4 moa with a 168 vld . I am not what you call a 1k yd hunter but I would not sweat a 700-800 yd shot at a deer in good conditions.
If at all possible you want to get it right by programming it into your ballistic App.

Another decent option is to simply add wind to your drop card if you used them. Just make a chart showing the correction for wind as well as your drops.

Just start at 500 because unless you're shooting in winds well over 10mph that are full value like you say, it's just not that big of a deal.

If you're hunting where you deal with high winds frequently you just learn to read and adapt.

Perfection is not necessry because you have a kill zone of over two feet spanning the neck back to the liver but the more accurate your inputs the better the chances of success. One of the most valuable reasons for having the best data you can get is when you miss it really helps you figure out how and why.

Here's a little article by Brian Litz you may find valuable. If you haven't read his books they are well worth the read and he dedicates a whole chapter to dealing with the wind. His books I believe are available on Amazon.

How Much Does Wind Reading Ability Matter? - PrecisionRifleBlog.com
 
Since spin drift is a static number.....IE......it is always to the right in a RH twist tube , and is always x.xx inches at , say 1000 yards, I zero my rifles to the left a touch. 1/2 inch left for a 100 yard zero or 1 inch with a 300 yard zero. That way I usually don't have to worry about it til well into the 4 digit distances. So, baisicly..I don't worry about it till I get WAY out there....past where I feel comforatable shooting at game.

Now...if you want to worry about something at long range (other than the wind), worry about coroilis. That always changes depending on where you are AND which direction you are shooting.

Use the shooter app (or one like it) combined with a good weather app and put in good info and it will spit out the correct numbers for you!!

Good luck, and have fun,

Tod
 
Up until recently I've been holding for it. That has worked fairly well out to about 700 yards where my spin drift is under .3 moa but by the time I get out to 1K I'm dealing with twice that amount and my scores have been disappointing. I'm trying to learn to remember to dial in the drift at the same time I dial in the elevation (memory isn't as young as it once was) and the learning curve is long and low. Because drift is categorically a "constant" (in the same way bullet path should be) once I get the dope sheet adjusted to deliver the proper data I should do much better and it'll be nice to limit my concerns to wind. Just have to find a windless day to work with it; windless days are rare around here.
Do I dial in wind? No ! Wind is a variable. IMO, trying to make a fixed setting work for variable conditions doesn't make sense.
 
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