Spotters Bullet trace, how far can you see it?

[Rapina]

Hello.

How far is possible to see bullet trace? I have range from 600m to 950m. No promlems to see trace at 600m, 223 rem to 338lm. See it all the way. But when we go to 900m its very hard to even catch the bullet at start. Minox MD 60 ZR is spotting scope. Bullet flies about 5.5mrad over LOS and I look little high through scope. I have tried to focus a bit far and a bit close, no good. Magnification 20 to 40, No good.
At 600m x20 is good. Still can see impact on steel and trace.
Just wondering is Minox running out of quality or something?

Thanks.

-T

 

[Solscud007]

I’ve been using cooled thermal and it works out to 800 yards. But when shooting further the bullet is like indirect fire. I think the heat is cooled down by the air and there isn’t enough friction to heat up the bullet. But when it lands I can clearly see it heat up. Especially on steel. Even 2200 yards away.

 

[SmileMaker]

Here's 1000yd

 

[dgheriani]

You can see trace out as far as the bullet can go although oftentimes what limits you is the backdrop you're shooting towards. At my long range spot, it's no problem to watch my buddy's trace (with my spotter setup behind him) out to my 940yd target. The next closest one, however, is at 1500yds and it can be quite hard to follow the trace all the way onto the target. It's easy to pick up as it arcs up to it's max ord and then starts coming down but not long after it starts coming down it's really easy to lose sight of it since it blends in with the evergreen trees in the background. Obviously the environmental conditions of the day play a part as it's easier to see trace in certain conditions (humid, cold, overcast, etc) but if you can see trace at 600yds on a given day, you should be able to see it further as well.

 

[shoobe01]

As above. It takes experience to know what to pick out from the other distortions, and of course the background, but I've personally seen trace at a mile when helping spot for some others.

This was however pretty optimal conditions, very sunny, consistent wind (at each range) and sloping open fields even beyond the target array so focusing at that range didn't put other distinct objects like a whole treeline perfectly in focus.

Actually we've done that before also, the split focus: when more than one spotter, have one focus a tiny bit short of the targets to see the trace.

 

[Mr.BR]

I’ve been using cooled thermal and it works out to 800 yards. But when shooting further the bullet is like indirect fire. I think the heat is cooled down by the air and there isn’t enough friction to heat up the bullet. But when it lands I can clearly see it heat up. Especially on steel. Even 2200 yards away.

Using a 70+K$ JIM Compact Thermal binos i could see bullets at least 1800m down range in the summer heat, have not spotted further with them, but i suspect they are capable of seeing bullets in flight much further.

 

[themightytimmah]

Depends on the cartridge - flatter shooting is way easier. I’ve had no trouble watching 300 PRC from the muzzle to 930 yard (our max range) impacts. 308 gets a little trickier and I have trouble with 223 past 600 or so unless conditions are perfect (humid, sun behind me, not too hot for killer mirage).

This is with a MK4 12-40 - usually around 20x or so. Bigger field of view is more important than big zoom in my experience.

 

[Solscud007]

Using a 70+K$ JIM Compact Thermal binos i could see bullets at least 1800m down range in the summer heat, have not spotted further with them, but i suspect they are capable of seeing bullets in flight much further.

Yep. Confirmed by a guy at Leonardo DRS. He can see bullets all the way to 2k meters.

 

[Maurygold]

Leupold mark 5 spotter user and I can see trace fine out to 1k - beyond that it becomes very difficult.

Bullet (size) matters for trace - shooting 215 hybrid. I would suspect a big 408 might be easier to see farther since most people are jumping up in caliber past 1200 or so for serious shooting.

 

[chevy_man]

Humidity and temp and wind.

We're so dry here that it's rare to see trace on a summer day.

It's clear as day when the snow is melting off as the sun beats on it.
However, it generally gets lost in the solid white background unless there's contrast.

Much easier to see when it's just rained, but hard to see during a rain storm, etc.