Dealing with mirage
I was shooting today in AZ and had bad mirage, worse than I usually get. I wasn't doing rapid fire, just testing groups with my 6.5 Creedmoor. Used 3.5 hours for 70 shots, felt mirage was effecting me. I was shooting 200 yards.
Is it worse in the desert? I don't recall it being so bad in Iowa. What are some ways to minimize it's effect?
Is it worse in the desert? I don't recall it being so bad in Iowa. What are some ways to minimize it's effect?
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There are several was to minimize the effect of mirage, but none that will completely remove it. First is to place a heat shield on top of your barrel. You might have seen benchrest shooters that had what looked to be a venetian blind on top of their barrel, this was a heat shield to remove the mirage off from the barrel itself.
Another more expensive trick is to use a extreme quality optic. All optics are going to show the mirage, however high quality optics have a ability to cut through the mirage due to the quality of their lens coatings. The first time I noticed this was during a benchrest match, I was using a Leupold Competition series 40X and I couldn't see anything out there due to the high temps, lack of wind and high humidity. One of the other shooters allowed me to look through his March scope and I was truly amazed at the difference between the two at long range. That is the reason why most of my optical gear is now made by Swarovski.
Lastly, the most effective, and least expensive way to control mirage is to show up at the range early on a cool, dry day with a slight breese blowing at you back. On mornings like that I can watch a 6mm bullet pierce the paper at 1000 yards with my Swarovski STM-80 HD, but let the day carry on and the mirage settle in and that same spotting scope is useless past 500 yards.0 -
skyfish,
What Mk 19 describes is alleviating the mirage caused by the barrel. That is controllable mostly.
The mirage that isn't controllable is what is between the barrel and the target. The only thing you can do is dial down power and wait for the wind to clear the mirage and favor your view of the target. You will see when it's clear. Then you will see a 'bloom' of some sort ruin your view. Don't get frustrated with that, learn from what it does. It's going to happen many, many times. Be observant of what just happened that caused that 'bloom'. Sometimes when it's dead still and super hot, the mirage just won't quit. Sometimes you just have to pick the left or the right version of the target and whichever one hits is the real one.
And, to answer your question, yes, the mirage is unbelievably worse in the desert.
Skyfish,
I'll say that this was one of the best day's shooting I've ever had. I've shot at these ranges before, but never had the video running to show what we did. I'm not talking about our great shooting [;)] , but how awesome it was to go back and look at the mirage. Scotty and Chuck were right on with wind calls just by looking at the mirage. It's so readable. Yet if you don't understand what it's doing, it would be so frustrating to try and get a shot off. Unfortunately, we didn't do too much communicating on the video but you can get the gist of what happens with the various hits/misses.
read the mirage by seeing the difference in the two cameras:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Z9yVeehoRI
Remember the view on the right is actually at our position. That is what we saw at 950 yds.0 -
The mirage is caused by the rising or moving heat waves from the ground as it warms up. High magnification optics make them more visible. Shooting during overcast skies or in the evening when temps are dropping greatly reduces this ground mirage. It is also very visible with snow on the ground when temps rise. "Reading" mirage can help with determining wind direction and velocity down range (not easy but effective). Barrel heat mirage is controlled as Mk 19 says. A bull barrel helps. 0 -
Mirage, or "Fata Morgana" is what you see influenced by the rising and swirling heat waves coming across your field of view, and it gets worse with drier climates.
Surveyors use umbrellas at the station being occupied, and sometimes they use moistened rags across the 'scope to keep it cooler than ambient air.
Snipers and Surveyors both have ways to combat its' effects over long distances, and mostly it has to do with quality glass, and patience.
Surveyors can adjust their instruments' magnification to look past the "wigglies" and be able to determine which view is actually the foresight/backsight; Snipers have spotters for the same reason.0
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