Mirage and scopes

Reading Mirage with scopes is a difficult thing to achieve, unless you think about the facts of mirage. Most shooters focus directly on the target then say "i can't see anything there is too much mirage". Truth to it is they have not adjusted their scope so they can see what mirage is actually out there. To focus on mirage first you have to understand it is it available from varying points along the line of sight so if you focus too short you will be watching mirage 100yards away if you focus past the target you are seeing mirage there.

So to  address this think about mirage  it can go in two different directions within 500m or possibly three or four.

Lets think about Batemans Bay (i am sure Anthony won't mind) that range has a hump in the middle of it about 300 yards out and i bet 90% of shooters will be focused on this. The target is some 200 meters more and it is blurred and out of focus.

So on your warmer target look at the target and adjust the parallax so the target is as clear as possible then adjust it back so the target is ever so slightly blurred you will see mirage there if you come to far back you will see it on the hump.

When shooting in very heavy Mirage you may have to use multiple hold points to have something to aim at i will cover this later if there is enough interest.

cheers Les

Les,

Great topic, and one in sure many struggle with as I do. I don't think there is any substitute for experience and trigger time when it comes to Mirage. I also feel as I have we try to ignore what we don't understand. Sadly you reach a point t where ignorance no longer cuts the mustard and if you want to perform CONSISTANTLY at the pointy end.

I was ill prepared for the mirage at the Nationals and boy did I pay the price. It is shoots like this where you see the seasoned campaigners kick ass. Since then I have focused on not only trying to read and analyse the mirage, but build a strategy to help when things get tough with the 6mm holes. Both Sean Ambrose and myself at Wagga really tried to minimise the damage our lack of mirage reading experience would dish out.

I look forward to seeing what others have to say on the topic.

Regards,

Deane

i'm interested Les , need all the help i can get haha