Kentucky Windage

[musketman]

Kentucky Windage - An estimate of the modified point of aim required to compensate for wind or for target movement.

Why not Pennsylvania Windage or Ohio Windage?

Is it safe to assume that Kentucky Windage originated in Kentucky, or was it first used by people shooting fixed sight Kentucky Long Rifles?

One source says the term "Kentucky Windage" was first coined by Sgt. York during WWI...

 

[Halftail]

Kentucky Windage - An estimate of the modified point of aim required to compensate for wind or for target movement.

Why not Pennsylvania Windage or Ohio Windage?

I prefer to call it "Bear Point windage"..... :winking:

 

I guess I have always assumed it was because "Kentucky" rifles had fixed sights. I have also heard the term "Pennsylvania" elevation. In any event the old timers got pretty good at holding off to account for wind, distance and mis-aligned sights! I am reminded of a story that a friend told me about a fellow who hunted deer with a battered old Winchester .30-30. He always got his deer. They used to kid him about never going to the range to check the sights and he said he'd never done it at all--just hunted with the rifle right out of the box! One day one of them took him to the range and shot his rifle at a target--it was off the paper! But that fellow knew where to hold!

 

[lasmail]

I used to here my dad talk of Kentucky Elevation. The first deer I shot with a CVA I used it with sucess. I was squatting with the rifle across my knee. I then raised the back of my foot and was actually aiming slightly over the shoulder of the deer. It went about 30 yards and collapsed. I wouldn't recommend doing it just for the sake of shooting unless you had an idea as to what to expect. By the way the deer was about 100-110 yards away and standing broadside in the open.This is farther than I would usually shoot.

 

Just to add: one of the things modern shooters have gotten away from is real skill at "holding" for fixed open sight shooting. They too often rely on fancy adjustable telescopic sights for modern guns and adjustable loads for MLers. The old timers learned where to 'hold' for different situations with fixed sights and one load (although some seem to have used two loads--a normal and a heavy load--as in "loaded for bear"). IMHO, people who were raised shooting open sighted .22 rifles offhand are naturals for shooting MLers, because the parameters translate almost 1:1. Many normal loads for MLers approximate .22 trajectories or are close enough that such experience is an advantage. I like to think of my larger bore MLs as "big .22s"--that is throwing a huge ball at .22 velocities to .22 mag velocities. I have done a lot of offhand .22 shooting over my 61 years!

 

[2172]

I thought Alvin York was from Tennessee...Hank

 

[Forster]

Another thing too Mike Today most guys own 10 or 20 guns and spread out their shooting time between them all. Imagine if you spent all your time with one gun how well you could predict shot placement. I had heard the saying somewhere "Beware the man with one gun because he will know how to use it".....Just a though...Jim

 

[BLAHMAN]

Kentucky Windage - An estimate of the modified point of aim required to compensate for wind or for target movement.

Why not Pennsylvania Windage or Ohio Windage?

:haha: :haha: :haha: :haha: :haha:

Ohio windage!

You been talkin' to Mrs. Blahman after I had one of those all ya can eat chilli fest at the neighborhood Burp-n-Slurp!

I'm surprised you haven't felt those tremors.

 

[musketman]

:haha: :haha: :haha: :haha: :haha:

Ohio windage!

You been talkin' to Mrs. Blahman after I had one of those all ya can eat chilli fest at the neighborhood Burp-n-Slurp!

We thought it was just Akron... (down wind you know)

I do agree with the above reply about the man with just one gun knows how to use it, one would get mighty proficient with it if your very life depended apon it...

Perhaps those "flyers" we get while target shooting are nothing more than wind effected shots, since we can't see the wind (except in Los Angeles), only it's effect on the surrounding fodder, we don't know when a sudden zephyr will make sport of your shot placement...

Now if we see the leaves and grass blowing about at the target area, we can compensate for the drift by holding the same distance in the opposite direction, predicted Kentucky Windage made to order...