Any good tips on doping the wind in the field without a wind meter? Like 10mph vs 20mph?

This is not to be sarcastic. The only good tip is to shoot, shoot, shoot. That experience gained makes the difference.

Rule of thumb, if observing through spotting scope, as in elk, mule deer, moose, whatever at some distance and mirage has been observed and a wind blowing, you can get some idea as to drift/direction, but if the mirage should go away, the wind has probably picked up over 10 mph or went "flat line..." on you. Military long ago developed formula's for each clock face direction and speed and required correction for the caliber being used. Primary calculations were for the '06 and 308, but rules of calculation the same. Speed or velocity of wind is actually easier to determine/estimate than positive ID on direction which has a large bearing on the flight of the bullet. Wind at 3 o'clock/9 o'clock or "full value wind" has the most impact on flight. Other directions do as well of course, but not as significant. Not many will memorize the formula for each direction and method I as others have used for sometime is to do a compromise and simply est. the speed, slight on face would be in 2-4 mph, small limbs blowing, stiff weeds, etc., 4-8mph, limbs size of wrist, etc. probably kicking up around 10 or more, and would advise with 20mph, hold up until it slacks off. Rough formula for windage estimation is simply Range(distance in yards) x Velocity(est. wind speed) divided by factor of 1000. Take half of that number and you will be lot closer than you might think. 400 yards x 10 mph / 1000 =4/2=2 minutes of correction either left or right. Mind you this is for '06/308 performance calibers and those high performance magnum rounds would give different results, but above is a rough guideline. Long range matches at times do not allow any sighters and distance is out to 1000 yards and any guidelines you can come up with is better than a SWAG. Good Luck!

Dsiteman: If I follow your math then 2 minutes at 400 yds would mean 8"?

Hello,
You are correct for 1 moa @ 400 yards is approx. 4". Two minutes right or left windage adj. would equal in inches, 8". It may sound a bit confusing at first, but w/ a little practice it can be "cyphered" pretty quick. Again, not perfect, and may well be a miss, but with the practice that previous poster mentioned, ever so important, you can and will be pretty good at placing shots at extended ranges with wind conditions. Mentioned earlier about the mirage in spotting scope, and piece of good advise given to me long time ago by outstanding shooter, now residing in New Zealand, never, never, shoot through a "boil."
Looking out over long expanse of real estate, even in cold winter as in Alaska on sunny days, you will see some mirage and if the mirage is appearing as a "boil"/thermal, etc., and you shoot, good chance of bullet going higher than you wanted. Have seen it take you clear up to the upper edge of 72" target board at 1000 yards which is a bunch when just before were putting them in the 10/X ring. That is some 3 moa of rise or 30"(moa @ 1000yds=10") Good way to ruin an otherwise decent score. Mind you, would never suggest shooting game at such extended ranges, just targets. Long range shooting for game to me would be only for an absolute circumstance as in survival, etc. If interested could provide you the formula/factors for each clock position, but not very useful for hunting game. As you probably have determined, is used for something other than sport shooting.

I would say the hard thing about judging wind is if you have to do so in an area that you are unfamiliar with. I can do pretty well on the grass and sagebrush hills here in Cali but in the hardwoods and brush country the wind moving the trees would look totally different to me.

Yes, 2 minutes @ 400 yards is 8"

BTW, I used to live in Chicopee Falls and Holyoke and have some family back there still.

Something I should have mentioned pertaining to the spotting scope/optics, providing you are using quality optics, Kowa, Leupold, Swarovski, etc., you need to "back focus" to get a better picture of the mirage. With the focus adj. on spotting scopes you are able to pick up "clarity" if you will, at different ranges other than the target itself and in essence you can decipher wind/mirage at varying distances between you and the target. Again takes a bit of practice and if you have the opportunity to observe distances w/ your spotting scope on a surface such as airport runway, long ashphalt highway, you can readily see the mirage and how it signals what the wind is doing. Keep in mind that at extreme ranges w/ heavy mirage, the target, bullseye, animal mass, etc. will tend to elongate and fool you into holding off one direction or the other, right or left. Heavy mirage, heat waves, etc. will sometimes nearly flatten the bullseye at long range and tend to make you think it is over to one side or the other which it is not. Plays a bit of tricks on the shooter. Elevation, come ups, etc. for almost any cartridge at extended ranges is the easy part, it is the reading of the wind that gives most people trouble and takes a bit of practice to become competent or comfortable shooting in strong wind. Did I forget to mention that "wind switches..." is another whole chapter?? Good Luck and remember the "wind is my friend..."

get closer.

The wind at the target and the wind where your shooting from almost negates accurate wind doping..I usually observe the grass etc at the target and then allow a little..its very hard to do, and mostly BS as to how to do it without flags staked out!

For one thing you don't always have a lot of time with wild animals and add to that they may be grazing or moving, but you usually have time to make a correction if you miss the first shot, at least in open country and most long shots are in open country.

The problem is a good shot has a high percentage of wounding as he will always be close to POI...a bad shot will usually miss the whole animal..based on that I like to shoot within my abilities for a kill and that is probably 300 yards on a still day. 200 yards and under suit me just fine.

Hello Ray,
What you say is well put, but believe you will find that the wind closest to the muzzle, not way down range, has the most impact on the bullet's flight, so you can adjust properly and still maintain accuracy at longer ranges(sudden microbursts/gusts,switches,etc. are hard to predict, but close scrutiny of the Kowa spotting scope will greatly help your odds of accurate shots) However, would strongly discourage any hunter attempting to take shots at game at distances that long range match shooters take at stationary targets. Once the bullet leaves the muzzle, not much you can do to correct that path/flight, but you can compensate for what you see. Should also mention that if you do not correct for elevation as well as wind, the shot will not be exactly where you want it to go. Strong wind to the right will tend to make the bullet "climb" w/ right hand rotation. Strong wind to the left will be the opposite w/ right had rotation. I am only aware of one mfg. that made/makes left hand rifling and that was/is Colt. Surely there are others, but not aware of them. Took me a long time to figure out why some of my shots at 600-1000 yards would be off in elevation on the bullseye when I made a right wind adjustment!! Eventually through experience and shooters w/ far more skill than I telling me, learned to make a slight elevation adjustment as well with wind adjustment at extreme ranges. Not an absolute, but if I made a two minute wind adjstment, would come down or up 1/2 minute in like conditions. Usually kept me in the 10 ring and not climb out to the 9 or even worse!! All that being said, the advise given above about getting closer, best advise you could get anywhere, anytime. !!