Doping the Wind

[Broken Brow]

You don't normally see windage tables for a shotgun, but when you are shooting at long range you to treat your shotgun like a rifle. Under consistent wind conditions, your pattern should maintain its density, but it will drift just like a bullet. This is probably the biggest mistake a hunter can make on a long shot. If this is more than you want to tackle, just understand that you need to reduce your maximum range when the winds pick up. Not doing so will mean the fringes of your pattern hit the bird rather than the center.

These windage tables should be relatively close for Hevi-Shot, Remington HD, Winchester Xtended Range, Hevi-13, and ITX Extreme Turkey Trauma-13. Lead of equal shot size should drift more. Federal Heavyweight and TSS of equal size should drift less.

Inches of Pattern Drift for #7's in a Cross Wind (90 degrees)

Yards ___40 ___45 ___50 ___55 ___60
5 MPH ___4 ____5 ____6____ 7 ____9
10 MPH __8 ____10___ 13___ 15___ 18
15 MPH __12___ 16___ 20___ 24___ 27
20 MPH__16____ 21___ 26__ 31____36

The #6's are probably going to cost you 6 yards or more in yardage (depending on the load you shoot), but they do have slightly less wind drift.

Inches of Pattern Drift for #6's in a Cross Wind (90 degrees)

YARDS ___40___ 45___ 50___ 55___ 60
5 MPH ____3 ____5 ____6 ____7 ____8
10 MPH ___7____ 9 ____11___ 14___ 16
15 MPH___ 10___ 14___ 17___ 20___ 24
20 MPH ___14___ 18___ 23___ 27___ 32
(Multiply the drift by .75 for a wind at 45 degrees)