By Mary & Dr. Jim Clary. Winds routinely cause bullets to deviate from their target. Whether you are an avid hunter or long range target shooter, you need information on the wind speed so that a compensation can be made for wind drift. We would venture an educated guess that more misses have occurred in long range hunting due to wind than any other factor.

Without a wind speed meter, it is nearly impossible to compensate for the drift. Given the fact that a lot of hunters cannot afford the $400 - $500 ballistic meters (which are very cool), they were left guessing at the wind speed until Caldwell introduced the Wind Wizard II.

This unit is reasonably priced at about $40 online and provides one with a precise wind speed and temperature. One can set the device to measure temperature in Celsius or Fahrenheit and the wind speed can be displayed in just about every mode you can think of.

The Wind Wizard II comes with a removable non-slip rubber sleeve which protects the unit, should you drop it. The rubber sleeve also provides a better grip with gloves. The lanyard is a nice touch to ensure that the unit is always handy. Our only complaint is we would like to see the rubber sleeve incorporate a cover flap to protect the screen.... but, that is just us.

The detailed specs for the Wind Wizard II are:
Wind Speed Modes
m/s range: 0 – 30
Ft/min range: 0 – 5,860
Knots range: 0 – 55
Km/hr range: 0 – 90
M/hr range: 0 – 45
Temperature Range Modes
°Celsius Range: -10 °C to 45 °C
°Fahrenheit Range: 14 °F to 113 °F

The unit is powered by a CR2032 battery which is included. As expected, there is an automatic shutoff just in case you forget and it has a backlight for early morning or late evening use. Overall, this is a very nice tool that will be of great value to hunters, whether you are after predators, elk or open country pronghorn. And, it goes without saying that its value to long range target shooters is immeasurable.