Airsoft Canada - Fighting wind with hopup : A marksmans quick shooting guide.

Introduction :

I started out airsoft as a sniper. Kind of the typical newbie obsessing over the sniper role thanks to fancy movies and video games. I was young then and such was my fate then, now i've smartened up and have a bit of a person arsenal of just about everything... Anyway.

I had to put up using my Classic Army M24 in most of the games I had participated in as I wasn't able to afford an AEG for the longest time. I just made do with what was available and learned how to operate with my limitations.

Using a bolt action rifle, it makes the user think twice about placing their shot, you only get one before having to wrench the bolt back and forth to load another. The feint report of the shot can give you away as well which can make things very complicated as a marksman. Its a gamble.

So, throughout it all, one has to learn to operate their rifle to its top potential.

Compensating for Wind

Airsoft guns aren't exactly the most accurate thing to begin with, you can dump countless upgrades into your rifle of choice and there still is only so much it can do. No matter what you put into it, dealing with wind will throw off your shot almost always unless you can compensate for it.

One thing I have found when it comes to shooting accurately is using the hopup to your advantage. So here are a few illustrations to throw my point out there.

http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b2...rtStuff/P1.png

Here is what I usually use for a 'zero' on my scopes. I use a regular Bushnell 4-9x zoom scope. Its got a basic hunting reticule which I find perfect for this kind of shooting. I zero for the basic 4x zoom setting.

Now, when I zero an airsoft rifle, I'll adjust my hopup so its a straight trajectory for the centre of the reticule as you would a normal rifle. But after that, I will adjust my hopup so the bb rises up to the point of the reticule where it goes from thick to thin.
The reason I do this is just for that extra backspin on my BB, this will help with fighting wind with the technique i'll show you in a moment here.

http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b2...rtStuff/p2.png

Now, generally this is how I see a lot of people shoot their rifle. They keep their rifle entirely vertical, crosshairs level and steady as if they were shooting a real rifle. Now, since at this angle, the BB is only fighting against gravity. Wind can easily take off with the bb and throw it off target.

Now, It'd make sense just to aim off to the winds direction to just let the wind carry the Bb to the target, right?

Not really.

Wind is unpredictable, the first shot might be carried off less as the succeeding one would be in the case of wind. Unless you're using a Mil-dot scope, its hard to mark the point where the bb had come to land on the reticule hairs. Even then that is challenge.

http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b2...rtStuff/p3.png

So the best way to counter wind with an airsoft gun is to use the hopup. Since its using a backspin, it will throw air underneath itself to rise upwards. Tilting your rifle towards the direction of wind will make the backspin of the BB fight against the wind. Its essential to get a feel with using this technique, anticipate the strength of the wind and tilt accordingly. Tilting too much will simply throw the bb way off course.

http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b2...rtStuff/p4.png

During the summer I usually spend a good time outside practising 'fighting wind' with tilting and at different ranges. The more of a feel you get with using this technique, the more accurate your shooting will be as a sniper. Even then, you can use this with an AEG.

I hope my quick guide helped!~