elkaholic
Well-Known Member
All you long range shooters out there have any special tricks for shooting in mirage?
Mirage shooting tricks
- Thread starter elkaholic
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Most of the top competition target shooters use these. I do and do think it helps a lot. 
BulzEyePro All-Competition Optical Boosters with Universal Housing
gt40
BulzEyePro All-Competition Optical Boosters with Universal Housing
gt40
royinidaho
Well-Known Member
Tricks???? You gotta be kid din!
Back in my benchrest days I had it, fairly frequently, figured out at several shooting ranges. Shooting 24X scopes @ 100 and 200 yes and hundreds of practice rounds from very early in the morning to very late in the evening.
Mirage can be your friend. I think it's all in how you take it. If you take it too seriously it'll kill ya. If you don't take it too seriously it'll kill ya.
Since hanging around you guys I've been messing with focus at different distances between me and the target. This has reinforced my thinking that mirage flows with the wind. The longer the shot the more variation in direction of mirage. The more I mess with it the more I get confused. I've reverted to checking mirage, making my best guess then firing and observing the results. Hopefully this will lead to having a bit of confidence at ranges over 700 yards.
The problem is going to be that by the time the actual hunt starts the leaves and grasses will be gone. Then what duya look at?
I've considered a suppressor to attempt to do the "fire for effect" thing that I've read that Darrel Holland did. The idea is to hit close enough to the game to validate dope but far enough away to not scare it off.
I think I'm carrying over the BR experience as I've selected several "hides" for ELR opportunities. Hours of study at each of these with a very limited amount of shooting is beginning to sink things into the old brain that lead to improvement from session to session.
For walk and stalk, the shot opportunities may be LR but not ELR where I hope to get away with 14x thus not much observation of mirage.
BTW I'm looking forward to what others have figured out. This should be a good thread.
Joseph posted as I was typing. His suggested device would certainly help in seeing mirage.
I have no problem seeing it. What it's telling me and how I compensate is my problem. If its flowing to the right, the wind is to the right. The wind is so much but how much does mirage add to it?
It's been beat into my head, again from BR shooting, to NOT shot when mirage is boiling. But, hey, what if it's always boiling and and your gonna make only one shot?
Back in my benchrest days I had it, fairly frequently
, figured out at several shooting ranges. Shooting 24X scopes @ 100 and 200 yes and hundreds of practice rounds from very early in the morning to very late in the evening.Mirage can be your friend. I think it's all in how you take it. If you take it too seriously it'll kill ya. If you don't take it too seriously it'll kill ya.
Since hanging around you guys I've been messing with focus at different distances between me and the target. This has reinforced my thinking that mirage flows with the wind. The longer the shot the more variation in direction of mirage. The more I mess with it the more I get confused. I've reverted to checking mirage, making my best guess then firing and observing the results. Hopefully this will lead to having a bit of confidence at ranges over 700 yards.
The problem is going to be that by the time the actual hunt starts the leaves and grasses will be gone. Then what duya look at?
I've considered a suppressor to attempt to do the "fire for effect" thing that I've read that Darrel Holland did. The idea is to hit close enough to the game to validate dope but far enough away to not scare it off.
I think I'm carrying over the BR experience as I've selected several "hides" for ELR opportunities. Hours of study at each of these with a very limited amount of shooting is beginning to sink things into the old brain that lead to improvement from session to session.
For walk and stalk, the shot opportunities may be LR but not ELR where I hope to get away with 14x thus not much observation of mirage.
BTW I'm looking forward to what others have figured out. This should be a good thread.
Joseph posted as I was typing. His suggested device would certainly help in seeing mirage.
I have no problem seeing it. What it's telling me and how I compensate is my problem. If its flowing to the right, the wind is to the right. The wind is so much but how much does mirage add to it?
It's been beat into my head, again from BR shooting, to NOT shot when mirage is boiling. But, hey, what if it's always boiling and and your gonna make only one shot?
elkaholic
Well-Known Member
Joseph.....I read up on the Bullseye and it sounds good.........thanks
Roy....It sounds like this has driven you about as crazy as it has me. The reason I finally decided to get more serious about it is because we have had an awful lot of mirage where I shoot the last month or so and I get tired of readjusting my scope every day! I was starting to think something was loose and then I realized it was probably ALL mirage.......Rich
Roy....It sounds like this has driven you about as crazy as it has me
. The reason I finally decided to get more serious about it is because we have had an awful lot of mirage where I shoot the last month or so and I get tired of readjusting my scope every day! I was starting to think something was loose and then I realized it was probably ALL mirage.......Rich
royinidaho
Well-Known Member
Rich,
Been there and done that.
At this point I'm looking for a spotter with an MOA reticle. Purpose would be to be able to video shots and measure, via reticle, POI issues. Secondly would be to set it up and video mirage to be able to, on the computer, sit and study what the target is actually doing and how much.
I've been behind the scope till my eyes got tired watch the x ring jump around. I got good at 100/200 shooting. LR and ELR is a different animal.
LR and ELR will have several variations at various distances. Determining which has the most influence is the hard part.
I have my 12" gong set up behind the house at 1167 yards. Mirage is horrible even with snow on the ground. Once I get the back stop set so I don't hit my friends cows, I'll be doing some serious mirage study.
Been there and done that.
At this point I'm looking for a spotter with an MOA reticle. Purpose would be to be able to video shots and measure, via reticle, POI issues. Secondly would be to set it up and video mirage to be able to, on the computer, sit and study what the target is actually doing and how much.
I've been behind the scope till my eyes got tired watch the x ring jump around. I got good at 100/200 shooting. LR and ELR is a different animal.
LR and ELR will have several variations at various distances. Determining which has the most influence is the hard part.
I have my 12" gong set up behind the house at 1167 yards. Mirage is horrible even with snow on the ground. Once I get the back stop set so I don't hit my friends cows, I'll be doing some serious mirage study.
elkaholic
Well-Known Member
Sounds like you are on top of it Roy. I could send you a few of my bullets, and then if you happen to hit a cow, at least we could get a ligitimate bullet test!......Rich
......RichI've been behind the scope till my eyes got tired watch the x ring jump around.
Joseph posted as I was typing. His suggested device would certainly help in seeing mirage.
Actually Roy, the lens helps to eliminate mirage so your target doesn't jump around hardly at all.
BulzEyePro All-Competition Optical Boosters with Universal Housing
joseph
PS: If you decide to try one the coated one works best and be careful to read the directions so you get the one that has "your" correct focus. If you call and leave a message the guy will call you right back to help you get the correct one for your eye.
SBruce
Well-Known Member
You guys dont know how happy I am to see this thread!
I've seen mirage move the target image around inside my scope many times, but learning which way to compensate and when to compensate has so far escaped me. One time it went from a boil to ~ a 30° lean to the left, and I watched the target image (a 3" diameter orange dot) moving around by as much as 1/2 minute, this was at only 800 yds. The gun was dead steady, so what's a guy to do??
Unfortunately, if it's dead calm and sunny where I live, then the mirage is boiling. We all hear about these ELR one shot kills on game, but never seem to hear about the mirage conditions and what they did or didn't do to compensate for them.
The mirage I hate worst is the kind that's so thick we have to turn our scopes down to 14X or less just to have a clear image of the target. Sometimes 20X is just too much to focus on the target with bad mirage. You guys see this sometimes too??
Maybe some way or another we'll get it figured out one of these days.
I've seen mirage move the target image around inside my scope many times, but learning which way to compensate and when to compensate has so far escaped me. One time it went from a boil to ~ a 30° lean to the left, and I watched the target image (a 3" diameter orange dot) moving around by as much as 1/2 minute, this was at only 800 yds. The gun was dead steady, so what's a guy to do??
Unfortunately, if it's dead calm and sunny where I live, then the mirage is boiling. We all hear about these ELR one shot kills on game, but never seem to hear about the mirage conditions and what they did or didn't do to compensate for them.
The mirage I hate worst is the kind that's so thick we have to turn our scopes down to 14X or less just to have a clear image of the target. Sometimes 20X is just too much to focus on the target with bad mirage. You guys see this sometimes too??
Maybe some way or another we'll get it figured out one of these days.
elkaholic
Well-Known Member
I think I will consider buying the lense. The way the weather has been here for the last two months, it almost isn't worth burning the barrel out trying to figure this out. I'm going to wait until we have some overcast/cooler weather before I do my final sighting in and chronographing to get ready for elk season.......Rich
. I'm going to wait until we have some overcast/cooler weather before I do my final sighting in and chronographing to get ready for elk season.......RichRTK
Well-Known Member
The weather seems to be pretty warm in Idaho as of late, I going there in a couple of weeks for elk and deer, hope it cools down soon.
SBruce
Well-Known Member
I think I will consider buying the lense. The way the weather has been here for the last two months, it almost isn't worth burning the barrel out trying to figure this out
So how does this booster help when mirage is so thick that we're turning down the power to get a focused target image. I'm lost on that one.
elkaholic
Well-Known Member
I don't know, but I'm willing to try it at this point. The only thing I can think of is it somehow "filters" the heat waves?.......Rich
The coatings are the same as used on our satellite lenses. How do you think that Google Earth pictures are so clear without any mirage? It also works if the magnification is increased to the point that the mirage will also disappear.
Here is a photo through a 8-80 power March scope at 1,000 yards which has no mirage at 80 power. I'd love to be able to afford one.
joseph
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SBruce
Well-Known Member
Ok, so that jives a little. We can either turn it down or turn it up and either way, possibly get around thatwave were seeing in the scope. Similarily, we tune our radios' up or down to hear or ignore a certain frequency....?
Just had a discusion with another competition shooter tonight over some beers, he is using a 40 some power target scope for rimfire matches. He stated that he didn't see mirage when using it.
He also affirmed......."we never shoot on a boil because we never know how it's gonna affect the shot vertically". He went on to say "I'd much rather have a decent wind....... 3mph, 5 mph, even 10 mph, just not dead calm because that's when the mirage will boil."
