Mirage did something funny yesterday.

[SanPatHogger]

Shooting 22s with 2 buddies yesterday morning. We are aiming south, sun came up on our left. I'm not sure if we were at 100 or 200 yards. Shooting at paper, carboard and steel plates 3 feet off the ground we were on, I was actually hitting .2 high. We had a couple sets of the cheap spinng steel targets set on the ground. Guy number 1 shoots at a spinner and says he saw dirt fly, shoots again, dirt flies, shoots the target up high and hits where he's aiming. Guy number 2 same thing, he's hitting the targets up high but then the targets on the ground he's hitting dirt. I'm up next. I shoot the orange dot on paper and can hit it fine. Transition to the spinners and hit dirt. Now just a little while earlier both buddies were able to hit the spinners. I've had the opposite experience before where the mirage was boiling up and right, and my impacts went up and right, but this was with a target off the ground. Whatever happened yesterday was consistent and got all 3 of us. The mirage was stronger closer to the ground, but odd that it seemed to affect us opposite than I have seen before. One of these guys is a pretty seasoned shooter and even he seemed a little surprised at what happened.

 

[6.5SH]

I believe that type of refraction is called "sinking".

Looming, Towering, Stooping, and Sinking

Looming, Towering, Stooping, and Sinking simulations

aty.sdsu.edu

 

[SanPatHogger]

I believe that type of refraction is called "sinking".

Looming, Towering, Stooping, and Sinking

Looming, Towering, Stooping, and Sinking simulations

aty.sdsu.edu

Thank you. Good information.

 

[Enough Said]

Happens at longer ranges as well. Must be accounted for.

 

[acudaowner]

i was waiting for you to say your mirage turned into two real strippers in a bubble bath getting it on I was going to say yup now that is pretty cool

 

[SanPatHogger]

A little more information. I happen to have a tempest in my yard. It is probably 1,500 yards from where we were shooting, so I'm guessing the temperature is within a degree or two. From 8 to 10 there is a pretty sharp climb from 65 to almost 80.

 

[SanPatHogger]

View attachment 7979128

In this picture the rifles and the targets are at different elevations? Or different temperatures?

We were shooting targets that were 2-3 feet off the ground and hitting where we aimed.
We were on flat ground. Shooting prone on the ground at targets on the ground. We also were hitting dirt, so point of impact would be low.
If we dialed our scoped up to hit the lower target we would have been hitting high on the higher targets.
So was the distorted image the one closer to the ground, or the one 2-3 feet high?

Gun nerd stuff. I think the biggest take away from this experince is to realize SOMETHING happened, SOMETHING changed. Now what do you do to make hits? Believe the bullet and correct.

Thank you for the information. I have learned so much in just a few years from almost everybody on here.

 

[SanPatHogger]

This came from another thread on the same subject. I am certain this is what we experienced.

Hot Road Mirage

What it shows:There are various types of mirages possible, the details depending on whether the hot air is above or below the cool air and how sharp the transition is from cool to warm. This demonstration simulates what happens when a dark asphalt road gets much hotter than the air around...

sciencedemonstrations.fas.harvard.edu

 

[acudaowner]

saw a 3''target turn into the face of a big turkey at 600 yards , well the target was still there the turkey just inserted it's self in the way of my view I really only noticed something was off when it blinked .

 

[Tempest 455]

We shoot F class (FTR). Someone years ago told me:

When mirage moves L-R, then it boils upwards, it's going to change R-L. If you shoot in the boil, your POI is going to be F'd.

Found him to be right 90% of the time, even more so in LR matches.

 

[vh20]

saw a 3''target turn into the face of a big turkey at 600 yards , well the target was still there the turkey just inserted it's self in the way of my view I really only noticed something was off when it blinked .

Happens to me on my range all the time, usually right in the middle of a 5-shot string.