Originally Posted by
Jason Donaldson
Ah, I see. I should clarify, then. My apologies.
Broadly speaking, adjustable sights (or scopes) for firearms adjust in two planes. Vertical is referred to as elevation, and horizontal is windage. When you zero, say a rifle, you adjust elevation and windage to adjust the point of impact to the point of aim at a particular distance. For changing conditions (wind blowing, different distances than zero, or even a moving target), you can adjust elevation and windage to get point of aim equalling point of impact.
Or you can just adjust point of aim on the fly. This is a more field expedient method, and a more realistic one in a time-sensitive situation like combat or hunting. Doing this is referred to as "Kentucky Windage", probably after an early model of firearm, the Kentucky Rifle, where the shooter solely had the option of this technique. So, just speaking of "windage" doesn't get the image across of adjusting an inaccurate point of aim to move the strike of the round on target.
Please correct me if I misremember, but I think I used the term for self-cueing, didn't I? Like when it FEELS like you're squatting to depth, but your squat is high, so you have to cue yourself to squat too low, instead. In other words, you adjust your point of aim (your feelz) to get the desired point of impact (proper depth).
For the process of making incremental changes until you get the desired effect, Rip likes to use a chemistry term, titration, because it means exactly that. If you wanted an ordnance-related image for it, I suppose you could think of it like walking artillery rounds onto target, but the metaphor of Kentucky windage wouldn't quite fit. (Really, though, titration is a better metaphor.)