Tennessee windage

English

Tennessee windage (uncountable)

(US, slang) An adjustment made by a shooter to correct for wind (or motion of the target) by aiming at a point horizontal to the target's position in the sight rather than by adjusting the sight to compensate.
- 1958, Robert Heinlein, chapter 12, in Have Space Suit—Will Travel‎^[1], New York: Del Rey, page 250:
  Why not assume that a hundred and sixty-seven thousand light-years leaves room for Tennessee windage amounting to only a hair’s breadth of a fraction of one per cent?
- 1976, Morris L. Bigge, “Describing the Learning Process” in Walter R. Nord (editor), Concepts and Controversy in Organizational Behavior, Pacific Palisades, CA: Goodyear Publishing, 2nd edition, p. 148,^[2]
  To hit a squirrel he had to take wind and distance into consideration and move the rifle away from a line on the target (windward and upward) to give “Tennessee windage” and “Kentucky elevation.”