Rifle Scopes Question about glare?

[tomcatfan]

Yesterday I was shooting in a long range match and one of the stages was right into the overcast sun. I could barely see the targets at between 500-600 yards through my optic. I couldn’t see my splashes at all. The spotters were telling me that I was way high on my shots so I came down. Strelok pro told me I needed 9.5 minutes of elevation to hit the targets at 570 yds. I used 7-6.65 to get even close to the targets even then I was high. The targets were maybe 2-3 moa targets.

I missed all of my shots on the stage. After the match I had extra ammo so I moved over to a different angle an reengaged the targets with no glare. I used 9.5 minutes and was hitting the targets pretty easily. Has anyone else seen a scope be that far off due to a washed out optic? Has anyone else ever had a similar experience?

 

[Hollywood 6mm]

The shift you're seeing sounds pretty drastic, but light angle/position can absolutely cause strange things to happen like you describe. Mirage is another candidate, depending on conditions.

 

[Dag34]

Our range faces to the west and when the sun starts setting in the evening weird shit happens. We start missing targets that we have been hitting all day. Pack up the bags and come back in the morning and all is good again. I have never spent the time to figure out exactly what is happening but perhaps a benched scope and a time lapsed camera would shed some light on it.

 

[Hollywood 6mm]

Our range faces to the west and when the sun starts setting in the evening weird shit happens. We start missing targets that we have been hitting all day. Pack up the bags and come back in the morning and all is good again. I have never spent the time to figure out exactly what is happening but perhaps a benched scope and a time lapsed camera would shed some light on it.

Scott Satterlee did that exact test a while back on posted it to youtube. I'd suggest giving it a look.

 

[tomcatfan]

Scott Satterlee did that exact test a while back on posted it to youtube. I'd suggest giving it a look.

Thanks for the heads up. Do you happen to have a link? My googlefu skills came up short.

 

[Hollywood 6mm]

Thanks for the heads up. Do you happen to have a link? My googlefu skills came up short.

If I can remember tonight when I get home, I think I have it saved somewhere. In the meantime, maybe @sstacllc is online and can post it.

 

[jaybic]

I am interested in this video as well. Did it end up online to view someplace?

 

[Nebulous]

I am coming from the photography world but I think we are talking about astigmatic aberrations combined with the other qualities of long optics.
Once you have intense light coming in to the optics at harsh angles the most extreme flaws in the glass, lens design and coatings will show up. These off axis light rays then collimate to a different plane to the design of the optic and thus just don't look right to the eye. Also with long lenses (scopes) if the light is bright enough in can "bounce" round in the lens and in some sense that's what lens flair is and you also get what some people call barrel pollution. You can only fix it with a longer lens hood to block the extraneous light rays or stopping down the lens (cant do that on a scope).
Always think about light and seeing as reflections. The target is only being illuminated by reflections of light. Therefore if the sun is behind or almost behind the target, the light from the target has to bounced off of something and then the target before getting to you through the scope and overcoming the source(the sun). This makes the light from the target "weaker" compared to the off axis light rays. Thus making it harder to look at what it really is you are trying to look at and even just straight throwing you off.