Mirage

[Larry Ross]

I have been shooting some 600 matches but I am just learning to deal with mirage. When dealing with everything else, I tend to forget what the conditions were on my last shot. I think I would like to rate the horizontal movement of mirage by something like 1, 2 or 3. Indicating how fast it is moving. My reason for this is, so I can remember how much I dealt with (held over left or right) on my last shot.

Has anyone tried something like this or something better?

Larry

 

[Terry]

Larry

I have found trying to bracket the conditions by firing sighters as the conditions change to be my best effort. I still have to remember the results but it gives me an idea of how much to hold off.

 

[Immike]

I have been shooting some 600 matches but I am just learning to deal with mirage. When dealing with everything else, I tend to forget what the conditions were on my last shot. I think I would like to rate the horizontal movement of mirage by something like 1, 2 or 3. Indicating how fast it is moving. My reason for this is, so I can remember how much I dealt with (held over left or right) on my last shot.

Has anyone tried something like this or something better?

Larry

That is as good approach as any and yes this has been done. Read the wind book by Miller and Cunningham and you will find that the palma shooters have been working on this same approach. It is a great book and full of just what you are asking about. Shoot straight brother!!!

 

[Mr. Ten-X]

My best success has come by watching/scoring previous relays to determine the narrowest mean condition on the range. Then, I will develop a firing strategy that allows me to fire all sighters plus record shots within the constraints of the clock, without ever touching the sights. Will watch the conditions and imagine narrowing my firing parameter as tight as possible while watching upwind indicators that signal any change from the mean. There's more to it than that and this strategy will not work every day under really fugly conditions, shooting 2 or 3 to a mound, super-slow pit-service, etc. However, it does work more often than not. It requires the ability to read conditions using all indicators on the range and it requires very strict discipline to stick to your plan, though you may find that you must tweak your plan very slightly at times (rarely), on the fly. Knowing when is a matter of feel and experience because changing the plan can destroy a good score if you guess wrong. When in doubt, hold up, wait it out and stick to the plan.

As a general rule under a normal range day, you move the sight and you will not get a good result.