Did you shoot over the weekend?

I feel like I have the mechanics of position down very well. It's science now, not guesswork. I still got my ass handed to me at Raton yesterday.

Our entire squad was missing the longer shots by as much as a foot high. I took a zero on the first string, every shot going right over the target. The next stage would be normal, then suddenly everyone would miss high again. As the day progressed, I began to suspect either thermal activity or slope lift from wind blowing in from our 6. I did a little research when I got home and found that a typical thermal might have vertical velocities of 3-6 MPH near the ground. Put that into your ballistics program and you get a reduction in drop of over 13" at 700 yards. I'd seen slope lift do similar things in the past when shooting on top of a big hill, but this was the fist time I'd seen a thermal affect elevation.

It was a real eye opener. If I'd figured it out earlier, I might have missed only one target per stage when it was happening instead of 3 or as many as all 6. Live and learn.