How much wind?

[navet]

How much wind is too much wind to shoot in? I live in Texas so the wind is always blowing. It seems wind over 20mph make my arrow flight a little squirrely(20yrds). Is that a problem in the mountains? If so, when would you not shoot?

[Wyo67]

Hopefully the wind is in your face when you're at full draw on that elk. My problem with the wind (it's always blowing here in Wyoming too...) isn't arrow flight, it's a cross wind catching the bow/arrows/quiver while trying to keep a good sight picture. Whether I release the arrow or not all depends on my feel of the situation.

[Swede]

There is no standard answer. There are things with bow and arrow that will effect arrow flight and accuracy.
If difficult wind is a problem here are some things you can do:

Practice shooting in a cross wind. Determine your own effective range with your equipment.
Try heavier arrows.
Use a hip quiver. A bow quiver full of arrows is harder to steady than a bare bow.
You may find out that you can not hold the same draw weight steady as you could where wind is no factor.
Another thing to consider is don't let the wind psych you out. shoot until you are confident you can hit a pie plate sized target with the cross wind blowing fairly hard.

[Drawnandpinned]

Well said Swede maybe try shooting inside a shop so u know that in a no wind situation ur dead on then practice in the wind

[JPD350]

Lots of wind in NM as well and I agree with the above posts to practice in it, for me the key is just being patient with the bow movement and only releasing if it's right. There has been many times that if I didn't hunt in the wind the hunt would be over!

[Indian Summer]

I've never been out elk hunting where I said to myself it's too windy too shoot.... in the location I'm hunting. The hunting in severe wind isn't usually good enough for the opportunity to arise anyway. Game is wary when they can't hear and the branches are blowing all over the place to the point where spotting movement from their beds isn't doable. They'll usually bed elsewhere that day anyway.

I don't make a habit of spending time on the top of higher ridges other than to locate game. My hearing is terrible so on the windy days I know there's not a chance I'll hear bugles. So I go into stealth mode. I'll drop off on the leeward side of the mountain out of the wind and creep along slower than slow. On that side of the hill & in the heavier cover wind is usually limited enough to make shooting possible.

I remember one time antelope hunting near Medicine Bow Wyoming. We were actually gun hunting and I looked at my step dad and said this wind will blow a bullet over to Colorado if we shoot! it was unreal. After that I said watch this and I leaned into the wind and it held me up like I was leaning against a wall. In antelope habitat there's no escaping it. But in elk country I find you can adjust your game plan and hunt where there's a break.

[ishy]

We did a 3D shoot couple years ago with gusts 35-45 mph. It was great practice. It all depends on shot distance and how thick of stuff we were in. In the open gusts would move you around at full draw, while in the trees sounded bad didn't push us around nearly as much. We all shot better than we thought we would given the conditions. I would say that if the wind is crazy you should be able to sneak closer, but they will be much harder to locate once the winds get over a certain level.

[Screaming_btf]

When I couldn't hold my bow steady enough to aim i would consider it to much