Mirage and Long range shooting

[dumbbell]

Me and some of my buddies shot today at 600 and out to 1660. AT 600, all of us were hitting .3-.4 tenths of a mil low. I am new to shooting in mirage, as i normally just avoid it, but want to learn. Was the mirage causing the target to appear higher than it was, or just bad trigger pull causing problems? Also, will mirage in windy conditions ever move the target left or right?

My second question is more of an elr one. I shot my 338 lapua today out to 1660 yards. I only shot 3 times because i wasnt sure if i was even hitting it as we couldnt see it. It is a 4ft round target so that i can spot my misses easier. The group(if you could call it one) was probable 24-30 inches wide, but only one inch vertical. Obviously my wind calls were nonexistent, i just put in my windage and aimed the same each time. Besides working on that, what do you think about the wide group? Find another hobby, find another load, work on wind calls, etc? The wind was varying at 7-13mph at a 50 degree angle to my shooting position. 30.26 pressure, 51 degrees, beautiful day for arkansas. All shots were taken within about 20-25 seconds of the previous shot. Thank you for the help, and how much ive learned on here. Greg

 

[jimmykm21]

It can make it appear higher , lower , moving side to side and in circles . There is nothing you can do to over come this except power your scope down until it stops.
Even if it means powering down to 4x or 5 x
Don't find another hobby lol , The wide group , it's hard to tell from what you described . It can be a number of things .If you want to easily eliminate the load question start at a closer range and see how it groups. Shooting a new load at 1660 is way too far for load development . Then you can work on your wind calls , everything in steps or you will just be chasing your tail in a circle.

 

[dumbbell]

Yes. Thank you. And i did check the load at 100 and it was less than half inch group. Thank you for the mirage info. Just a little bumfuzzled at first. Thank you for the help

 

[WaltHer]

Another possible consideration, depending on what projectile you are using, is to pick a projectile with a higher bc than what you are currently using. BC rules the wind. You can model the effects of various bullets on your ballistic program by changing your current load with load data using the bullet manufacturers recommend loads as a place to start.

 

[WaltHer]

Ps 1" verticle dispersion at 1600+ is sheer awesomeness. Take pride in the consistency of rifle, ammo, and shooter.

 

[Bigwheels]

Mirage in my experience will cause the image of the target to move with the mirage. I have seen target displacement of about 2 moa on a real bad day. I watched it wiggle around about 1/2 moa in between gusts of wind, & then shoot off to 2 moa with the wind gusts, & back again once it had passed.
As for the horizontal stringing you experienced. I would bet on some wind you didn't see/account for. I will try to watch the wind mirage for several minutes moving the focus back, & forth to see where the winds are, & how fast they are going. (not a science, but an art IMHO) There may be multiple wind columns between the FFP, & the target @ 1600 yds, & sometimes they can't be seen, or detected no matter what you try.

 

[agbm]

This will help with mirage:BulzEyePro Optical Boosters the Original Optics Booster

 

[dumbbell]

Thank you for the info, keep it coming. I should have mentioned im running the 300 berger at 2838fps. By all means, a 3 shot group with one inch of vertical is sheer luck. I ran the numbers at that yardage and one mph of wind off either way of 10mph would move the bullet 15 inches left or right. Im just trying to get a feel for what u guys see when you are shooting at that distance. Obviously there are some talented guys on here, just didnt know if i was the first guy to see that much horizontal movement at that distance. Thank you all again, Greg

 

[308Gunner]

Wind is a bitch, the only way to get better is to shoot. If you can go to a School there are some good one's that will get you on the fast track.

 

[zfastmalibu]

Mirage will lift the image of the target in the direction the wind is going. It should make you miss high and in the direction the wind is heading. Do not turn your scope down, learn to use mirage, it is wind in real time. Learn to read it. It s your best tool in the field to tell what the wind is doing. Even if you turn the scope down until you cant see it, the effects of mirage are still present.

 

[dumbbell]

Mirage will lift the image of the target in the direction the wind is going. It should make you miss high and in the direction the wind is heading. Do not turn your scope down, learn to use mirage, it is wind in real time. Learn to read it. It s your best tool in the field to tell what the wind is doing. Even if you turn the scope down until you cant see it, the effects of mirage are still present.

Mirage will make you hit high? Ok, that is opposite of what i was having trouble with. My shots were low. We all had to add an extra .2-.3 mils to hit the target. Sounds like i may have to look at another cause of the problem.

Also, you are saying that turning the mag all the way down will not eliminate the target distortion, or the shots hitting high? It will reduce visible mirage, but you will still impact high or off or whatever. Am i understanding you correctly? Thank you

 

[dumbbell]

Heres anothrr factor probably, we were all shooting prone on a range where the target and our shooting positions were both on the same elevation, flat all the way to the target. I bet if we had elevated our position by 2 to 3 feet it would have helped aa lot. Stupid is, stupid does

 

[missed]

A guy I have learned some from said never shoot on a boil. The boil can make the target look high. He said there is more consistency firing while the mirage is moving horizontally. Last time I shot with him we were shooting to 1k in 105 degree heat and he just made it look easy. But I guess years in Iraq you get plenty of practice.

Sent from my XT1080 using Tapatalk

 

[sandwarrior]

dumbell,

First, great shooting in the wind. It's not easy. Don't think that a first time out and you weren't center-punching at 1660 yds. you didn't do well. I've taken new shooters out who can't hit 100 yds. Stick with this hobby. You've done well.

Above, you hear two schools of thought on mirage. Both have merits and drawbacks. So I ease between the two. Mirage is great for seeing what the wind is doing. However, it can obscure the target so bad you can't get a good hold on the point you want to shoot at. In which case I turn down the scope to where it isn't destroying the view. I try to never turn it down so far as to eliminate mirage. Sometimes, reading the mirage as best I can then turning down the power and shooting in the same condition. If wind increases or decreases hold off the shot until the condition returns.