# How do you shoot in a mirage environment?



## Eyemakecalls2 (Apr 13, 2011)

Yes, that's a question. Yesterday I was sighting in my AR-15 .223 24" E.R. Shaw barrel. 42 power NSX Night Force scope. It's a tack driver. Home loads and I am meticulous. I dialed in for right and left at 100 yards. The mirage was off the charts. My group was:Here have a look.






Shooting on 22 power, I started from top right and went down that side. Shooting for right and left. Good with that at target fouth down on the right, I started to zero at 200yrds so the 100yard shots should be high 1.7 inches. At 100 yards this rifle can shot single hole groups. That is not what your seeing here. The target was mirage bouncing every direction. Rt and lf good I'm on to 200 yrds and the top center target and working down. I shot and I can't seem to get it dialed in and I'm moving 1,2 and 3 clicks per 3 or 4 shot groups. As far off as my group were I knew it wasn't the rifle, the wind or me. The targets were twice the size, fuzzy and out of focus in the scope and so the last group at the center/bottom target was low and right. Only one shot was good for height. I started looking at the mirage trying to read it better. 
I asked what is not moving. Thinking shoot at that. I had moved the up clicks up 2 and to the right 1 from the bottom center target. I shot the top target 2 inches higher and just right (the wind was gusts to 5.3mph average 2.1 from 9 o'clock so ok I'm good right and left at 200 . two clicks should not have made that much difference 1/2" at best. I shot way higher. I am doing my best to read this mirage. I move the scope adjustment down 2 clicks (1/2") I shot the next target down on the left (second from the top) the group is good height but left. The wind might be part of the problem. I have shot 1/4" group at this rest. I stop and read. I just scope for the next ten minutes. Watching the mirage. I noticed everything moving and not stopping but the bottom of the target. (The bottoms of the little black circles not the whole page) sure it's moving some *but it is stopping off and on*. Check out the fourth target down on the left. The last one. There are two groups The first one I shot is the three shot group that is high. It's between the two targets. But tight. *So the next and last three shot group I shoot at the bottom of the target four as I wait for it to stop moving and I took even longer to shoot*. These shots I waited two to three minutes apart. I also took my eye away twice each time, to rest and refocused before I sent it. Waiting to shot the bottom of the mirage and I came up with 2 in the black. One of them is just above the bull. I can't wait to shoot there again, with mirage or not, I think I am on to something. Anybody else had this experience? And this kinda success?


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## youngdon (Mar 10, 2010)

I think you got it right ! Aim at the largest target.

http://rimfireshooting.com/index.php?showtopic=4128


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## Antlerz22 (Apr 18, 2011)

Eyemakecalls2 said:


> Yes, that's a question. Yesterday I was sighting in my AR-15 .223 24" E.R. Shaw barrel. 42 power NSX Night Force scope. It's a tack driver. Home loads and I am meticulous. I dialed in for right and left at 100 yards. The mirage was off the charts. My group was:Here have a look.
> View attachment 2051
> Shooting on 22 power, I started from top right and went down that side. Shooting for right and left. Good with that at target fouth down on the right, I started to zero at 200yrds so the 100yard shots should be high 1.7 inches. At 100 yards this rifle can shot single hole groups. That is not what your seeing here. The target was mirage bouncing every direction. Rt and lf good I'm on to 200 yrds and the top center target and working down. I shot and I can't seem to get it dialed in and I'm moving 1,2 and 3 clicks per 3 or 4 shot groups. As far off as my group were I knew it wasn't the rifle, the wind or me. The targets were twice the size, fuzzy and out of focus in the scope and so the last group at the center/bottom target was low and right. Only one shot was good for height. I started looking at the mirage trying to read it better.
> I asked what is not moving. Thinking shoot at that. I had moved the up clicks up 2 and to the right 1 from the bottom center target. I shot the top target 2 inches higher and just right (the wind was gusts to 5.3mph average 2.1 from 9 o'clock so ok I'm good right and left at 200 . two clicks should not have made that much difference 1/2" at best. I shot way higher. I am doing my best to read this mirage. I move the scope adjustment down 2 clicks (1/2") I shot the next target down on the left (second from the top) the group is good height but left. The wind might be part of the problem. I have shot 1/4" group at this rest. I stop and read. I just scope for the next ten minutes. Watching the mirage. I noticed everything moving and not stopping but the bottom of the target. (The bottoms of the little black circles not the whole page) sure it's moving some *but it is stopping off and on*. Check out the fourth target down on the left. The last one. There are two groups The first one I shot is the three shot group that is high. It's between the two targets. But tight. *So the next and last three shot group I shoot at the bottom of the target four as I wait for it to stop moving and I took even longer to shoot*. These shots I waited two to three minutes apart. I also took my eye away twice each time, to rest and refocused before I sent it. Waiting to shot the bottom of the mirage and I came up with 2 in the black. One of them is just above the bull. I can't wait to shoot there again, with mirage or not, I think I am on to something. Anybody else had this experience? And this kinda success?
> ...


 When I lived in Colorado I hunted Pdogs a lot. Sometimes we would be bench rest shoot them ( yes we brought a bench!) from a ridge to another ridge at times 700~800 yds. I had a leupold 6.5x20 vari x III w/ao on my .270. What I learned from that was, anytime you go up in power you also go up in mirage--if its there. If you magnify your target you also do the mirage. What this did was make the pdogs "shake" in the scope on 20x both up and down and side to side. I had to use the extreme left movement and the extreme right movement and pick the center of that, then do the same for the up and down. Then my friend with ear plugs and ear muffs over that( kept him from blinking when i shot), would watch for the bullet to splash/hit with his 40x spotting scope on a seperate tripod off to the side of the bench to prevent recoil from shaking his view. Once I felt i was "on" I touched her off--but never connected the first shot. However, after my friend gave me the hit info I would do the same as before, but then add the dope in the form of kentucky windage as I never changed my zero. This worked almost every time for the second shot. But to answer specifically your question, go down in power as much as you need to but still be able to discern the target properly, it helps, but it also isnt quite as accurate as a day with little to no mirage. For varmint shooting it isnt rocket science but for paper punchin it matters if you in fact are grouping versus just keeping honed. Hope this helped, just sharing a past experience.


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## Eyemakecalls2 (Apr 13, 2011)

Thanks for sharing your experiences with me Antlerz22. It does help. Lower the power. It makes sense. That's the real stuff. What youv'e done and how it worked for ya. Thank you!


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## Eyemakecalls2 (Apr 13, 2011)

I talked to some of my buds that have gotten back from Iraq and from Afgahanistan. They said simply, shot for center mass! That straight from the sands of hell.


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## Antlerz22 (Apr 18, 2011)

Exactly! But it still means picking/quessing at the wiggling image where your best assessment of center is as well as up and down. They just used a simple term dead center vs a detailed answer--but it is in fact a spot on answer they gave.


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## rdsi64 (Jun 18, 2011)

Eyemakecalls2 said:


> Yes, that's a question. Yesterday I was sighting in my AR-15 .223 24" E.R. Shaw barrel. 42 power NSX Night Force scope. It's a tack driver. Home loads and I am meticulous. I dialed in for right and left at 100 yards. The mirage was off the charts. My group was:Here have a look.
> View attachment 2051
> Shooting on 22 power, I started from top right and went down that side. Shooting for right and left. Good with that at target fouth down on the right, I started to zero at 200yrds so the 100yard shots should be high 1.7 inches. At 100 yards this rifle can shot single hole groups. That is not what your seeing here. The target was mirage bouncing every direction. Rt and lf good I'm on to 200 yrds and the top center target and working down. I shot and I can't seem to get it dialed in and I'm moving 1,2 and 3 clicks per 3 or 4 shot groups. As far off as my group were I knew it wasn't the rifle, the wind or me. The targets were twice the size, fuzzy and out of focus in the scope and so the last group at the center/bottom target was low and right. Only one shot was good for height. I started looking at the mirage trying to read it better.
> I asked what is not moving. Thinking shoot at that. I had moved the up clicks up 2 and to the right 1 from the bottom center target. I shot the top target 2 inches higher and just right (the wind was gusts to 5.3mph average 2.1 from 9 o'clock so ok I'm good right and left at 200 . two clicks should not have made that much difference 1/2" at best. I shot way higher. I am doing my best to read this mirage. I move the scope adjustment down 2 clicks (1/2") I shot the next target down on the left (second from the top) the group is good height but left. The wind might be part of the problem. I have shot 1/4" group at this rest. I stop and read. I just scope for the next ten minutes. Watching the mirage. I noticed everything moving and not stopping but the bottom of the target. (The bottoms of the little black circles not the whole page) sure it's moving some *but it is stopping off and on*. Check out the fourth target down on the left. The last one. There are two groups The first one I shot is the three shot group that is high. It's between the two targets. But tight. *So the next and last three shot group I shoot at the bottom of the target four as I wait for it to stop moving and I took even longer to shoot*. These shots I waited two to three minutes apart. I also took my eye away twice each time, to rest and refocused before I sent it. Waiting to shot the bottom of the mirage and I came up with 2 in the black. One of them is just above the bull. I can't wait to shoot there again, with mirage or not, I think I am on to something. Anybody else had this experience? And this kinda success?
> ...


 Mirage is caused by the difference in the ground temp and the air temp. I forget which one as to be the warmer of the two. Since the two are seldom the same, we always have to deal with Mirage. The best advise I can give for shooting with mirage is learn to read it. I can be a great indicator of what the wind is doing. Remember miriage always goes in the same direction as the wind. a vertical boil means a zero value wind. If its going left to right, so is the wind. The faster the wind is blowing, the further away for vertical the mirage gets.
last but not least, you can back down your magnification to clean up your sight picture. If your shooting with a fixed power scope your stuck. My personal rule of thumb is no more than 1.5x per 100 yards of range. 1x per 100 is better but these tired eyes need a little kicker. At 1000 yards you can see a 5 inch circle with a 10 power scope if the glass is decent.


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## Eyemakecalls2 (Apr 13, 2011)

Nice! All vertical boil and thats why if I shot at the bottom it was still (motionless) once in a while. That made it appear because nothing was rising off it only momentarily. Makes perfect sense. The other thing i am hearing you say is that if the is mirage, tight groups are out. Unless we count luck. Thanks for the input rdsi64, without it I would have counted on the bottom getting clear. But it only will if the wind is calm and the boil is vertical. I have seen the spikes and lines in the mirage I need to get better with my associations with the details.


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