OK, here's another thought I had last night.

Those five shots at 50 yards kept nagging at me. Remember, this is what the group looked like.



Even though I was having a tough time with the sights, why was I able to keep the vertical spread to 1-1/8", while letting the horizontal spread get so big?

Then I realized - It had to be the wind. (Hey, when you need an excuse any excuse will do. )

So here's the deal. The rifle range at our hunting club has always been a fifteen-foot wide by 300 yard long lane through mature pine forest.



Wind has never been an issue on the range. But that section of our lease has just been clear cut. The trees are gone and the rifle range is bare butt naked.

There was a breeze blowing during my shoot on Saturday. So much so that I had to clip a clothes pin to the bottom of the target sheets to provide weight and keep them from flapping in the breeze.

So let's assume there was a variable breeze ranging from 5 to 9 mph during the shoot, and look at what the wind drift would be for the load I was shooting with a 7 mph cross wind. Here's the chart.



Well BY GOLLY, that little 7 mph breeze could move the ball 2.5" to the side at the 50 yard mark, and a 9 mph gust could move it over 3". Now there - I sure do feel better about that lateral dispersion.