K
katokoch
Guest
I was wanting to try this for awhile and finally got to doing it today.
Went to a local indoor range (Bill's, for those around Minneapolis) to do some shooting (of course), and decided to try a little experiment. After some reading about turbulences in indoor ranges and reflecting on my indoor shooting, I got curious.
At Bill's, there's two seperate indoor ranges. Both are 50 yards and have only four lanes. Since I was the only person shooting for awhile, I got permission from the guys in charge to let me staple some 12" long peices of bright plastic surveyor's tape to the target hangers on the two lanes ajacent to me (I was against the wall) and sent one down 25 yards. I also had tape on my target, which I shot at 50. So, I had three target hangers with surveyor's tape hanging freely from them at the muzzle, halfway downrange, and at my 50 yd. target. The purpose of the simple experiment was to watch and see if those flags ever moved. The slightest random flutter to me would mean the slightest random breeze in the range, which would make shooting in there alot trickier.
Guess what... they never moved. Not once. Not even when a fella next to me was shooting his Taurus Judge (fyi, .410 slugs out of a pistol have a little kick to 'em!). The tape would only flutter while I would run my target back and forth to my bench, and of course I held off shooting while it was moving.
Now, if I could have something to measure the mirage I was getting in my scope (A Tasco 36x, soon to be named "Eyestrainer" by myself), there would be some interesting stuff. All by myself at the range, zero mirage. Didn't matter how fast or slow I was shooting, none. However... the moment people showed up and started plinking away with pistols, sure enough the air around the target was boiling pretty well.
So anyways, I guess some strips of surveyor's tape in a pretty small indoor range won't be very conclusive in comparison to people shooting in The Barn, but I found the air at Bill's to be rather dead.
What do you think... is there any way to really measure airflow and turbulences in an indoor range or am I lucky to shoot in a place that is pretty still?
*Edit*
Here's a photo I snapped from my camera phone while I was shooting. I hadn't yet got the idea to hang a flag from a target near the benches, but you might be able to see an orange strip on the target next to my lane.
In addition to this... it's not on topic but can anyone in the Minneapolis area direct me towards an outdoor range that's good to shoot at? I haven't got myself to a match yet this year and feel the need to do alot more practicing yet before I compete but I don't want to keep going to Bill's. Not the best range. At all. I want to practice benchrest, position shooting, and silhouette if possible. Any help is appreciated.
Went to a local indoor range (Bill's, for those around Minneapolis) to do some shooting (of course), and decided to try a little experiment. After some reading about turbulences in indoor ranges and reflecting on my indoor shooting, I got curious.
At Bill's, there's two seperate indoor ranges. Both are 50 yards and have only four lanes. Since I was the only person shooting for awhile, I got permission from the guys in charge to let me staple some 12" long peices of bright plastic surveyor's tape to the target hangers on the two lanes ajacent to me (I was against the wall) and sent one down 25 yards. I also had tape on my target, which I shot at 50. So, I had three target hangers with surveyor's tape hanging freely from them at the muzzle, halfway downrange, and at my 50 yd. target. The purpose of the simple experiment was to watch and see if those flags ever moved. The slightest random flutter to me would mean the slightest random breeze in the range, which would make shooting in there alot trickier.
Guess what... they never moved. Not once. Not even when a fella next to me was shooting his Taurus Judge (fyi, .410 slugs out of a pistol have a little kick to 'em!). The tape would only flutter while I would run my target back and forth to my bench, and of course I held off shooting while it was moving.
Now, if I could have something to measure the mirage I was getting in my scope (A Tasco 36x, soon to be named "Eyestrainer" by myself), there would be some interesting stuff. All by myself at the range, zero mirage. Didn't matter how fast or slow I was shooting, none. However... the moment people showed up and started plinking away with pistols, sure enough the air around the target was boiling pretty well.
So anyways, I guess some strips of surveyor's tape in a pretty small indoor range won't be very conclusive in comparison to people shooting in The Barn, but I found the air at Bill's to be rather dead.
What do you think... is there any way to really measure airflow and turbulences in an indoor range or am I lucky to shoot in a place that is pretty still?
*Edit*
Here's a photo I snapped from my camera phone while I was shooting. I hadn't yet got the idea to hang a flag from a target near the benches, but you might be able to see an orange strip on the target next to my lane.
In addition to this... it's not on topic but can anyone in the Minneapolis area direct me towards an outdoor range that's good to shoot at? I haven't got myself to a match yet this year and feel the need to do alot more practicing yet before I compete but I don't want to keep going to Bill's. Not the best range. At all. I want to practice benchrest, position shooting, and silhouette if possible. Any help is appreciated.
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