Benchrest- overcast vs bright light conditions?

[chkunz]

Pray harder and louder.

If you say so I will ty harder but I am somewhat skeptical.

 

[BoydAllen]

What distance are you doing your load development at?

 

[Fuj]

If you get bright sun and mirage what do you do?

You get to a point where you start dialing down on power.
Early in the morning, I had sighters down range prior to
the event kicking off. First relay, I backed from 55 down to
40 then down to 30 for the second relay. For the 3rd and
4th relays, I was able to crank it back up.

 

[JEFFPPC]

You get to a point where you start dialing down on power.
Early in the morning, I had sighters down range prior to
the event kicking off. First relay, I backed from 55 down to
40 then down to 30 for the second relay. For the 3rd and
4th relays, I was able to crank it back up.

Good point Fuj. One day many years ago at an IBS Championship it was in the high 90s and very humid. Everyone was crying about the mirage. It was 100 and 200 yds. I dialed down to 24 power after the first target and shot at that both days. I ended up second. It taught me a lesson. The middle is still the middle wether it looks big to you or smaller.

 

[chkunz]

What distance are you doing your load development at?

100 yards from bench rest.

I shoot NRA High Power rifle competition so eventually the 100 yard pet load gets tested in prone position with the sling at 600 or 1000 yards. I also shoot the reduced course matches and it is fun to shoot the prone slow fire stage with a very accurate load.

 

[mr45man]

Are you saying that wearing reading glasses helps with bright sun and mirage?

For me, having polarized ,anti glare lenses helps.

 

[AlNyhus]

If you get bright sun and mirage what do you do?

Thank my lucky stars!

Nothing better than having wind you can 'see'.

Good shootin' -Al

 

[BoydAllen]

100 yards from bench rest.

I shoot NRA High Power rifle competition so eventually the 100 yard pet load gets tested in prone position with the sling at 600 or 1000 yards. I also shoot the reduced course matches and it is fun to shoot the prone slow fire stage with a very accurate load.

I take it that your mirage problems are at the longer distances. For that situation I would have to defer to those that shoot benchrest at those distances. My experience with mirage is almost entirely at 200 yards.

 

[chkunz]

I take it that your mirage problems are at the longer distances. For that situation I would have to defer to those that shoot benchrest at those distances. My experience with mirage is almost entirely at 200 yards.

No, my problem is with the bright light and mirage at 100 yards where I am doing load development from benchrest and need to see the reticle on the target very clearly. It is not a big issue when shooting in position with lower power scopes for XTC competition where we have a big target.

 

[gunsandgunsmithing]

I understand the issues mirage can cause but dialing the power down only makes it where you can't see it but does not mean the mirage is gone. You just made it where you couldn't see it. Mirage is light bending due to air currents. Moisture or things like even dust, along with light are what makes it visible.

 

[chkunz]

I understand the issues mirage can cause but dialing the power down only makes it where you can't see it but does not mean the mirage is gone. You just made it where you couldn't see it. Mirage is light bending due to air currents. Moisture or things like even dust, along with light are what makes it visible.

So, is dialing down effective in mitigating the negative effects or not?

 

[JEFFPPC]

I understand the issues mirage can cause but dialing the power down only makes it where you can't see it but does not mean the mirage is gone. You just made it where you couldn't see it. Mirage is light bending due to air currents. Moisture or things like even dust, along with light are what makes it visible.

Sometimes I dial down and rely on my flags. Occasionally I ignore the flags and trust the mirage. Not set in stone . It's nice when both line up and repeat.

 

[JFrank]

So, is dialing down effective in mitigating the negative effects or not?

I think so,

 

[gunsandgunsmithing]

So, is dialing down effective in mitigating the negative effects or not?

I do not think so.
Seriously, I think it depends. You can't hit what you can't see but the bullet sees it all. I do think that mis-aiming due to mirage is likely more often than not, more important than the condition has on the bullet. But like wind, that too depends on things like where the wind or mirage is worst. Flip side is, mirage is the best wind flag ever. You're seeing mirage nearest the target if you have the scope set parallax free. Like Jeff said, it's nice when flags and the mirage agree but then you have the determine which is least dishonest and frankly, I've seen it both ways.

 

[BoydAllen]

No, my problem is with the bright light and mirage at 100 yards where I am doing load development from benchrest and need to see the reticle on the target very clearly. It is not a big issue when shooting in position with lower power scopes for XTC competition where we have a big target.

Thanks for the clarification. I do not think that mirage has much to do with your problem. I have done lots of shooting at that distance in bright light with no mirage problems with scopes over 40X. Of course this is just a guess, but perhaps your problem is glare. Have you ever tried looking through your high power scope (on a bright day) with Polaroid glasses, or a polarizing lens that was designed for a camera? As an afterthought, tell us about your testing targets. Do you print them, or are they commercial. How reflective is the paper? Yes I am a crazy experimenter, so you will have to pardon me for this. Try making some sort of shade for the target so that no direct sunlight falls on it, sort of an artificial cloudy day. Think of it as having perfect control of the weather ;-)

 

[gunsandgunsmithing]

Thanks for the clarification. I do not think that mirage has much to do with your problem. I have done lots of shooting at that distance in bright light with no mirage problems with scopes over 40X. Of course this is just a guess, but perhaps your problem is glare. Have you ever tried looking through your high power scope (on a bright day) with Polaroid glasses, or a polarizing lens that was designed for a camera? As an afterthought, tell us about your testing targets. Do you print them, or are they commercial. How reflective is the paper? Yes I am a crazy experimenter, so you will have to pardon me for this. Try making some sort of shade for the target so that no direct sunlight falls on it, sort of an artificial cloudy day. Think of it as having perfect control of the weather ;-)

UBR targets are very white. I seldom have an issue with it but yes, on occasion it has "whited" things out. It's rare though.

 

[Immike]

Probably cataracts, is night driving getting difficult?

 

[Alex Wheeler]

If its sunny with ugly mirage you better have a gun that tracks.

 

[Fuj]

There are times that the mirage just makes that 10 ring dance
around. Dialing back in power helps me to see the center more
steady.

 

[chkunz]

Probably cataracts, is night driving getting difficult?

Yes, night driving is a problem and some other things that are the result of "slow growing" cataracts

The "slow growing" means that things degrade very slowly over time so that it is hardly noticed at first but things do not get better with age. I believe this may be the problem at the bench where I am pressing my eyesight to the limits. So I will be limited to shooting bench rest on overcast days until I get eye surgery.