Thermal Mirage Solutions

[Liberty97045]

I have a long range rifle that will be getting a ThunderBeast 30P-1 as soon as the paperwork arrives (any day now) and would like input on solutions for thermal mirage. I will be buying the suppressor cover from Armageddon Gear and I will put the sun shade on my scope to cut.

What else can I do? Heat shield? Wrap the barrel? Live with it?

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[Morpheus]

I'm wondering just how many rounds per minute are you going to be putting through this rifle that you are worried about Thermal Mirage? Unless you are putting this on a semi-auto and going to do mag dump after mag dump, why are you worried about it?

Put a normal mirage cover on it, and have fun.

Or are you planning on shooting in hot weather and firing 20-rnd mags over and over?

 

[Liberty97045]

This a bolt action rifle with a 24 power scope. Thermal mirage starts becoming a problem after about 10 shots. I might fire as many a 4 shots per minute.

 

[Morpheus]

I've not had this problem, but perhaps I will experience it.

I'll be quiet now and let others comment.

 

[chemist]

Interesting! I'd never heard of this problem before, but I clicked on this thread because of my familiarity with EM propagation.
At the ranges you're talking about, the height of the scope isn't important, so you can go with the tallest rings you can find and wrap the barrel in reflective Nomex. As long as there's a hint of a breeze, thermal mirages won't form above the reflectorized surface.

(I learned about mirage abatement at lower frequencies than optical, but it's all the same.)