Day 2 Cactus, atmospherics and tuning;

D

Don

New member
Density Altitude DA feet= 1625, 2178, 2558, 2789.......7am, 9am, 11am, 3pm
Temperatures F.= 48, 57, 64, 67..................."
Humidity %= 64, 49, 20, 12..................."
Windspeed range MPH= 0, 0, 15-22, 7-23.............."

Boy, it looks like it was one of those tough days at the range where you just want to pull your hair out, if you have any. This day was nothing like the previous practice days or yesterdays competition.

This is one of those days where the first relay has a big advantage because of the early morning calm before the wind storm starts up at around 10 am.

Even though the first couple of matches are trigger pulls because of the calm, there is a large drop in humidity from 64% at 7am to 12% at 3pm, so those guys shooting N133 were probably really challenged in keeping a tune.

From 11am and thru out the rest of the day competitors are having to shoot in wind variations from 5-25 mphs, from all different directions, and still maintain a tune for the considerable atmospheric changes.

This is one day where you better have your tune changes pre-mapped to the atmospherics, because trying go to the sighter target in changing 25mph winds with different load combinations or tuner setting is just not going to show you much at 200 yards.

The morning yardage might be lucky enough to have a couple of aggregates in the high-.2s to low-.3s if a few lucky competitors were able to shoot some small groups in the calm and hold it together with their last groups as the wind hit at 10am.

For the afternoon yardage, with rotating winds from 5-25mphs, and large atmospheric tune changes, top 5 aggregates in the .4"-.7" range would not surprise me at all.

Todays winners will be the survival of fittest with some luck thrown in..........................Don
 
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Great example

Of why knowing precicely one's tune in the ambient is important. Add an out of tune rifle to "Conditions", Not good.
 
Thank you Don,
It's like listening to Howard Cosell on the radio, the tension, the drama it's all there, hell we're living it!!
Thanks man,
Charlie
 
Pete Wass said:
Of why knowing precicely one's tune in the ambient is important. Add an out of tune rifle to "Conditions", Not good.
Click to expand...

Agreed!

And I was kind of disappointed, to find out on another thread, that Gene Beggs was not able to make the Cactus due to last minute circumstances.

Recently, he has been a big proponent of making tuner changes during tournament competition, using sighter shots before going to record shots, yet I dont believe he has been able to test this theory out since he has only recently developed his new tuner protocol in a tunnel setting only.

I was anxious to get his reaction to "firing line tuner changes" at the Cactus during 25mph changing winds at 200 yards.

Since I started using various different styles of tuners since 2002, I have come to the conclusion that a "pre-mapped tuner protocol" would be superior to a "firing line tuner protocol", if all pertinent mechanical and atmospheric factors were accounted for, which I am not convinced they are.

I still believe there is more to it than Density Altitude, Temperature, Humidity, Barametric pressure, and Dew Point.

Until further understanding and improvements, maybe the best we can do is a combination of "pre-mapped" and "firing line" tune protocols............Don
 
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