Shot a brown bear once in winds gusting up to 94 mph. Averaging maybe 40-60 mph.
Even laying down prone with my rifle rested on a backpack, gusts of wind would still blow the rifle 12-18" off POA @ 130yds.
The 94 mph was based on a wind meter on a commercial fishing boat anchored in a protected anchorage about 3 miles away. Since this boat was in protected waters, the peak wind gusts could have been higher. The bear didn't mind the wind at all. He came strolling right down a mountain ridge-line in the midst of it all. Certainly the wind speeds up on the ridge line would have been even higher. He acted like there was no wind blowing at all.
When I tried to set my tent up after killing the bear, the wind blew the rain fly straight, and I mean straight, across the lake! It looked like a magic carpet ride. When I finally crawled into the tent - no rain fly, all the tent poles were bent like limp spaghetti noodles, and I spent a lot of the night just trying to keep the wind from lifting the shell of the tent, and me, off the ground.
