Misleading Mirage

[aslrookie]

I went shooting on some farm land in Kansas this past weekend. It was low 50’s, sunny and 80% humidity. We set out a target at 600 yards to start.

The mirage was horizontal and fast moving as if the wind was heavy, but after taking the gator down towards the target, it never felt faster than 5-7mph. You could see the mirage even with the naked eye.

Instead of shooting from the ground, I suggested we shoot from the back of the SUV to elevate our position and hopefully alleviate some of the mirage. It improved a little bit.

Then we moved the target back to 920 yards. I tied a small rag to the target hangar for wind guidance on direction and speed. The whole time we were there it was barely a head wind. On the way back to the shooting position, there was a small wind tornado at the 500y spot.

I managed to get 2/3 at 920 with my 18.5” 308 bolt gun. The first shot was a head wind and then the second & third hits the wind changed from left to right and used Franks wind technique which seemed to work.

Has anyone else seen a fast horizontal mirage but the wind speed doesn’t reflect that? It was my first time shooting in Kansas and on that land. Just seemed odd to me.

 

[Deleted member 113831]

The angle of mirage changes fairly drastically up to 6mph. 0 to 6mph is about 60 degrees change in mirage angle.

The difference between 6mph and 10mph is only about another 15 degrees or so. If you aren't used to looking at mirage, it can be hard to discern the difference in 7mph vs 10mph.

Also, depending on the terrain, you could be looking through a portion of the laminar air flow that you can't feel at ground level.

 

[AIAW]

I went shooting on some farm land in Kansas this past weekend. It was low 50’s, sunny and 80% humidity. We set out a target at 600 yards to start.

The mirage was horizontal and fast moving as if the wind was heavy, but after taking the gator down towards the target, it never felt faster than 5-7mph. You could see the mirage even with the naked eye.

Instead of shooting from the ground, I suggested we shoot from the back of the SUV to elevate our position and hopefully alleviate some of the mirage. It improved a little bit.

Then we moved the target back to 920 yards. I tied a small rag to the target hangar for wind guidance on direction and speed. The whole time we were there it was barely a head wind. On the way back to the shooting position, there was a small wind tornado at the 500y spot.

I managed to get 2/3 at 920 with my 18.5” 308 bolt gun. The first shot was a head wind and then the second & third hits the wind changed from left to right and used Franks wind technique which seemed to work.

Has anyone else seen a fast horizontal mirage but the wind speed doesn’t reflect that? It was my first time shooting in Kansas and on that land. Just seemed odd to me.

View attachment 7218386

Happens all the time!

There are also quite a few threads also from the past about how to deal with this phenomena to a degree. It's something learned with time, and terrain will induce even more variables.

http://www.snipershide.com/shooting/threads/wind-reading-downrange.6886551/

https://www.snipershide.com/shooting/threads/doping-the-wind-via-mirage-in-the-scope.148868/

https://www.snipershide.com/shooting/threads/reading-mirage-with-rifle-scope.128510/