Mirage?

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wagthedog

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Hi guys. We have all heard that one of the advantages of variable scopes is the ability to dial down the power, when/if mirage conditions are present.
At typical rimfire ranges, 50 - 100 meters, has anyone ever noticed a problem with mirage? I never have, but I'm in Alberta. Does anybody have a Weaver t-24 or T-36 on a target rimfire?
 
I typically shoot 50 yards. On a sweltering day I can hardly notice mirage.

When I stretch it out to 100-150 yards, I find mirage is far more prominant. For my rimfire scopes at 3x-4x magnification.....mirage isn't too bad even on hot days, but cranked up to 10x-12x yeah. its noticable.
 
It can be a problem with high magnification. We shoot minimum 100 and with irons for the first 30 shots and any sight for the 2nd 30 shots. Mirage is noticeably different with moving cloud creating intermittent shade downrange.
Just part of the territory of using high mag optics - and something else to test the skill.
It can be used to an advantage in reading shifts in wind as the air currents will change far sooner than any flag or wind probe.
 
Wagthedog:

Its actually bad enough that on some days I can't see anything if its set on 18x or higher.

When its cool and cloudy the scope works perfectly on all settings, the down side is that the gophers only really come out when the sun is out and the temp is a little higher.

For that reason I usually try to stay under 12x and usually at 10x, seems kind wasteful as the scope goes all the way to 24x......

Maybe I should have spent the extra money on the model with a "sun shade"?

Cheers!
 
"Learn to see through it, read it and shoot it."


? No comprendo!
Mirage is when you see your bullet holes in a vertical string on a target, when you know you always shoot into 1" or so. I saw this when I was using iron sights.
The only way it would be possible to detect it without shooting is to bolt the rifle immovably to something and then watch the target for a few minutes; you would then see the target slowly move up and down.
 
A scope sunshade won't do anything about the mirage you see. Unless the only source of the mirage is the heat waves off your barrel and you have a very long sun shade. In competition you have to shoot in the conditions or wait them out. What may help for barrel heat is a barrel band or mirage band attached to the barrel.
 
mirage

mirage is wind you can read, when there is not wind on your windflags and the mirage is moving right to left your bullet will move to the left, as you cannot get a true picture of where the aiming point is,

point a 60 pound rail gun on a target in the am and watch the dot move throughout the day as the mirage becomes apparant, have an article somewhere but cant post it or find it

jefferson
 
Mirage is not wind, and you cannot read it.
It is a thermocline, entirely composed of air of two different densities, and it moves. Your POI will move with it, unpredictably.

It happened to me on a windless day, so that instead of 1 moa I got a vertical spread of about 5".
 
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