Dick,

  Back when Schuetzen was "king" the shooting was mostly offhand at 200 yds. I have seen pictures that show a flag at the target. But mostly the shooters relied on what they could see in the grass and trees. Also, most shooters shot out of shooting houses, or stalls, where the wind didn't move them around. I've seen mention that the better offhand shooters of the day would allow for the wind, so they must have been aware of it in some way. Also in "The Rifle", I think it is, maybe S&F, they show a lithograph of a wind clock set up on the range that gave a direct readout of the wind direction.

  But you get to the other side of the coin... bench shooting as practiced by the slug gunners, and Walnut Hill target shooters.... and when reading up on that you will find many references to wind flags, and exactly how they were made and used. Warner in his letters to Lowe gets into pretty fine detail about them.

PETE