NikonUser as the premier guru on scopes I have a quick question for you or anyone else who is knowledgeable. What is the latest and best scope out there for cutting down on mirage. I'm putting together another prairie dog gun which I will be using in the 1000-1200 range. I know you like and use March so was wondering which of the March scopes would offer the best option for my shooting. Would also appreciate any suggestions on reticles. Would also appreciate if you or anyone else out there has knowledge about anything with comparable glass.

Mirage is a naturally occurring optical phenomenon in which light rays are bent to produce a displaced image of distant objects. A mirage is extremely noticeable when observed through optics, such as a spotting or sniper scope, since light rays actually are refracted to form the false image at the shooter or observers location.

Cold air is denser than warm air, and therefore has a greater refractive index. As light passes from colder air across a sharp boundary to significantly warmer air, the light rays bend away from the direction of the temperature gradient. When light rays pass from hotter to cooler, they bend toward the direction of the gradient. If the air near the ground is warmer than the air higher up, the light rays bend in a concave, upward trajectory—something we commonly see through our rifle optics. In the case where the air is cooler on the ground or near the ground than the air higher up, the light rays curve downward.

Optics per se... won't change the presence or abscense of Mirage. Nor will it abate it. Unfortunately, it is what it is.

I would tell someone building a rifle for a specific purpose to look around at what shooters are using for that purpose.

Go to names are a great place to start (Nightforce, Kahles, USO, S&B, ect). But each has their own detractors and merits. There is no one scope that is best for a situation.

I'm sure others will chime in with opinions.... but look around and ask around.

Andrew

quote:

Originally posted by low8option:
NikonUser as the premier guru on scopes I have a quick question for you or anyone else who is knowledgeable. What is the latest and best scope out there for cutting down on mirage. I'm putting together another prairie dog gun which I will be using in the 1000-1200 range. I know you like and use March so was wondering which of the March scopes would offer the best option for my shooting. Would also appreciate any suggestions on reticles. Would also appreciate if you or anyone else out there has knowledge about anything with comparable glass.

You can't get a riflescope to cut through mirage, not anything that relies only on optics. Perhaps in time, some electronic riflescope with built-in AI image processor ill be able to do that, but that's not available now.


What I have found is that optics quality have a bearing on how you view mirage some worse than others. Put another way, all riflescopes are affected by mirage; cheap optics will make mirage worse.

We can get into a long discussion about how to use mirage to your advantage, but it will still scramble the picture you see.

I find that ED glass (Extra Low Dispersion) glass is somewhat "less affected" by the running mirage , (and that's just an opinion with no science that back that up that I am aware of) but nothing optical gets rid of it

The higher the magnification, the more prone you are to mirage; you learn to deal with it. I never back down my magnification because of mirage. Some others do.

If you plan to shoot something as small as prairie dogs at 1000 yards, I recommend a really high quality scope with ED glass and a reticle that is useful for windage and elevation holds.

Mirage can benefit the shooter if it's not too bad -- specifically if the target isn't being obscured by mirage. Such mirage allows the shooter to estimate crosswinds, as long as the winds are 10-ish mph or less.

Getting off the ground helps to reduce the mirage than blocks targets or messes with the vertical sight image. Shooting across a long flat tends to increase the bad mirage. I find mirage the worst when sun is directly shining on the ground.

When shooting PDs from a long ways away, I prefer an elevated shooting position, or shooting across a valley.

Appreciate the information but a little background. First, I've read everything you have written here NikonUser and we have had a few discussions over the years about this same topic. I know about mirage and it's affect as I have been fighting it for over 15 years in the dog towns. I routinely kill dogs at the 800-1000 yard range so am no novice to the effect it has. Unfortunately mirage offers no help as I routinely shoot in winds 15-25mph. At higher magnifications all I see are wavy lines downrange. You have said that you dial up instead of down with your March scope so the glass it has definitely has some effect. My question was probably worded wrong as I know that optics alone will not cure the problem. On the other hand I know it can help so I'm looking for the best glass I can find for the money. I read great things about the Genesis but the ranges I'm shooting would not warrant that outlay of funds. So I am looking for opinions on the glass in the other March scopes. Right now my current rifle carries a NF Atacr 7-35x56 which has ED glass and I find it far superior to my other scopes but still can not dial up more than 21 or 22 and see any imagine at any range over 800 yards when the temp gets above 85 in SD where I hunt. My other scopes are a NF Benchrest and a NXS and I rarely go above 17 or 18 under same conditions. I was seeking your opinion on the March as I would like to be able to dial higher and since I will need new glass I am open to new information before I purchase glass for the new rifle.

This is an area where I am uncomfortable in being specific. Unlike lots of people who instinctively recommend their exact scope of one they have decided on to anyone with who asks for a recommendation; I tend to shy away from doing that because a first tier riflescope is a fair bit of change and can be quite a specialized tool.

I can tell you a little bit about the March scopes. At the high end of these already high end scopes, you will find the ones that have a 56mm objective and a 34mm tube. They all have ED glass and some of the new ones, the High Master series, have Super ED glass, which to my mind is Nikon's latest, most sophisticated non-pure-fluorite-crystal glass. As I think I've mentioned before, at SHOT 2019, I had opportunity to compare the March-HM 10-60X56 side by side with a March-X 5-50X56. I could discern an incremental benefit with the HM, and that would have been my scope of choice if it had been available at the time, but the increment was nowhere big enough to cause me to sell my 5-50X56 and get an HM. The 5-50X56 has ED glass and that was a big leap from non-ED glass. Super ED was just a little better.

Now, that said, March seems to be concentrating on the Super-ED glass and the Genesis has that glass in it. So the picture you get from the Genesis is about as good as you will get from any riflescope. The allure of the Genesis is it's incredible elevation range: 400MOA: 250 up, 150 down. It's designed for the VERY long range and it's an FFP.

In the SFP scopes, the March HM 10-60X56 is currently the best they make. They also have the 5-50X56 and its big brother, the 8-80X56. I have the 5-50 and this weekend, I was talking with a team member who has the 8-80. I run mine at 40X and he runs his at 60X. He is an amazing competitor, BTW. I'm a little older than he is and my eyes really do see a difference at 60X, where it gets dark. I've never wished for more than 40X, so the 5-50X56 if fine for me.

I think however, that you might be better served by an FFP riflescope and I can tell you that March has announced and will be releasing shortly an FFP scope that will blow you away. It's a 5-42X56 FFP with Super-ED and it has 140MOA of elevation adjustment range. Slap that scope on a 30MOA base and you will have 40 down and 100MOA up. I'm talking in MOA terms here, but that scope will be all MIL. It will also have a wider eyepiece which will make it easier to get behind at the higher magnifications. I played with a pre-release at SHOT 2019 and it's an amazing scope. Expect it by the end of this year.

I am happy to answer any other questions you have.

Thanks NikonUser you have given me exactly what I was looking for and that was a breakdown on the March scopes and the glass they use. The new 5-42x56 FFP looks to be what I need to look at and I was wanting a direction to focus my attention as March makes a lot of different scopes. I've been around the block a few times so I look at everything before purchasing. I respect your knowledge and appreciate you sharing it with me.