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Mirage shield material

CA_Shooter

I'm looking to make a mirage shield, and have so far been using a vertical blind. I put on a new scope and the vertical blind seems to be getting in the way of my scope.

So thinking of different material - would a cut off piece of cloth from a t-shirt do the job? I saw some people say even paper could work.

What different materials can you use to properly get the mirage from impacting the scope ?
 
A piece of target paper, cut and folded for added rigidity, has worked for me in a pinch when I left the mirage shield at home.

Sling shooters used to (may still) used a strip of elastic material that looked a lot like a section from somebodies suspenders, stretched out between the front sight base and the scope rail and/or rear sight base.

Corroplast from a sign store.

Anything works, to varying degrees. If you can't fit a blind slat between your scope objective and the barrel, your scope might be a tad lower than it needs to be. Just sayin'
 
You want something as light as possible so that you still maintain weight. I use old political signs and cut a 2" to 2 1/2 strip out of the white section. I attach with velcro dots. as light as it is, I have had to remove the shield when getting weighed. I am talking bench rifles with high mounted scopes
 
If your scope is mounted low. You can take a NBRSA/ IBS group 200 yd target and roll the paper up to fit your scope bell and put a rubber band to hold it in place. I have done that at matches where we were shooting into the sun
 
Sounds like I can use basically any material - that sounds pretty good.

To note: I can fit the vertical blind between my scope and rail. Just the angle ends up getting in the way of the scope when it gets windy - the vertical blind starts flopping around because I don't want to connect it directly to my barrel
 
go to the uspo get shipping tube. that fits the bell. some time i paint them black helps to keep them from falling apart. good luck. steve[beak]
 
It’s amazing how much steam is in a scope after a couple shots, anything 1-1/2” to 2” wide will keep the eye strain down-that is unnoticed until competition gets in your blood. Definitely something sighting in a deer rifle will teach you if you know to look for it...not a luxury to let them cool down in competition. We run them hot for a reason!

Explanation for reason: heavy barrels need to be fouled and warmed up to run.
 
Last edited:
257ack said:
You want something as light as possible so that you still maintain weight. I use old political signs and cut a 2" to 2 1/2 strip out of the white section. I attach with velcro dots. as light as it is, I have had to remove the shield when getting weighed. I am talking bench rifles with high mounted scopes
Click to expand...
remove the shield when getting weighed? Is that legal?
 
I can give a couple hints here- heavy mirage shades act like a tuner that doesnt work, and if its very sturdy the wind will buffet it around so bad you can see it in the scope. Neither is good for a group
 
I have been using chain link fence privacy material for 15 years. Thin slightly curved aluminum about 2" wide. It's lighter than just about anything else, works great and it's cheap. I've got 50' of it rolled up and stored. Not much bigger than a roll of duct tape.

The natural curvature also promotes smooth heat flow up and away from the line of sight. Sharp, flat edges will introduce eddys in the heat flow and not be as effective. Yeah, it is kind of an "out in the weeds" thing but it is there.

There is an article on that subject somewhere on the internet.
 
FWIW, I have used 3.5” curved window blinds for about 20 years. With the sun out I Velcro those to the barrel with the curve up, in the rain, I flip them over so the rain drops will not run down into the barrel channel. The shield runs from near the muzzle back and under the scope front. If it rains I also drape a clear plastic sheet over the length of the scope to keep the rain out of the action area and off my ammo. And yes I build my rifles with the shield and window blind taken into consideration. See: https://www.ssusa.org/articles/2021/2/23/10-f-class-rules-for-beginners Rule # 4: “F-Class rifles with mirage shield and rain cover attached must weigh 1/2 pound under the limit on your scale or the one you used last.”
 
One additional note, if the wind is sufficient to make the mirage shield flop around on the barrel, you possibly don't need to be using in it that strong of a wind condition. Your sight picture may well not even be affected by the heat/mirage from the barrel as the strong wind will usually blow it away from in front of the scope objective. In my experience, the mirage shield is often unnecessary in wind speeds above ~10-12 mph.

Alternatively, the mirage band may require a little better anchoring to the barrel if it is flopping around in a wind condition that is not sufficient to negate the effect of barrel heat/mirage. In that event, an extra piece of Velcro or two might help anchor it to the barrel better so it doesn't move and affect your sight picture.
 
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