when shooting 200 yards with 22 rimfire at what point does the wind most affect your shots and why?

This is what I want to hear. I was watching a bunch of guys shooting an informal match this weekend. the wind was about 10 mph comming from the WNW and gusting heavily.Trting to read the wind was a learning experiance. Most of the shooters were watching only the wind at the target and getting varying results.

The wind that always gets me is from behind. At some ranges, it is difficult to detect and quantify.
Those little .22 pills can snatch a ride and hit (miss) high.
Mike.

First , you have to figure out what wind on the range is going to affect the bullet most.  At most ranges there are always something to block/re-direct the wind, ie: trees, vehicles, buildings, ect.  If the range has flags, you then need to figure out which ones are the ones to watch.  Some of them will lie to you.  Next is to watch the mirage.  I was taught to focus on the target, then back the focus off the target slightly until the you have the area in front of the target in focus.  This will give you direction and velocity of the wind to a point.  There are lots of good books on the subject of how to do this, Nancy Thomkins has some good info in her book.  IMHO, you need to go out and practice reading the wind.  Preferably with someone who can hold elevation and call their shots.

FWIW,
Steve

Of course, with BPCR the mid range height of the bullet on its way to 500 meters is something like 40 feet. Very few flags are on poles that high and there is nothing blocking the wind up there. You can imagine what it is for 800, 900 and 1000 yards.

You need to understand how much to offset your point of aim to compensate for changes in wind direction and intensity changes.

Understanding the effects a bullet moves from changes in wind direction is essential and you need to understand the attached wind vector chart.

Practicing with a BR50 target enables you to develop; fine tune, your wind reading versus your sight offsetting skills.

Notice what happens if the tail or head wind switches a hair from the right side to the left side and the wind is no longer exactly 180 degrees or 360 degrees.

Some of my basic rules:

Pick the most consistent wind condition to sight in on that is left to right or right to left at 90 degrees or 270 degrees, or pick a head or tail wind that is consistently at 180 or 360 degrees.

Never sight your rifle for 45, 135, 225, or 315 degree winds.

Always shoot when the wind starts to drop, NEVER when it is starting to increase in velocity.

The closest wind flag is most meaningful as long as further flags show a consistent wind direction and velocity.

I used 7 wind flags in a perfect row that I could read instantly. If one flag deviated I would wait until the flags were telling me a similar story.

thanks for the information. I now have a little better understanding of what to look for on the range. the wind chart helps to understand what to look for depending on which direction it is blowing. I will pay more attention to what is happenig

That is a nice, clear chart.    

Am I correct saying that it only applies to rifles with right hand twist rifling?