This is probably a pretty obvious thing but I wanted to ask if what I think I saw is really what I saw.
I have been thinking about shooting in a 200 yard high power precision match this weekend so Sunday I went to the range to practice. I thought the match description (target sizes) seemed a little easy but after what happened Sunday now I think it is actually pretty challenging and just appears relatively easy if you don't know any better (like me). I'm used to shooting slowly. About 20 rounds in 30 minutes. But this match is 30 rounds in 20 minutes. Low and behold after about 10-12 rounds my POI starts moving all over the place. Well, maybe not all over the place but anywhere within about 1 moa of my POA. I also noticed that the mirage seemed to be very very heavy and it shouldn't have been given the conditions. In fact, the mirage was heavier than I have experienced before, to the point I couldn't see the target clearly, and it seemed to get worse the more I shot. The same thing happened on the second 30 round series.
So my question is this. Does this sound like mirage caused by heat from the barrel and could that cause the POI shift I saw? I should mention that I shot the 30 rounds in about 15 minutes so heat dissipation was even less.
I have been thinking about shooting in a 200 yard high power precision match this weekend so Sunday I went to the range to practice. I thought the match description (target sizes) seemed a little easy but after what happened Sunday now I think it is actually pretty challenging and just appears relatively easy if you don't know any better (like me). I'm used to shooting slowly. About 20 rounds in 30 minutes. But this match is 30 rounds in 20 minutes. Low and behold after about 10-12 rounds my POI starts moving all over the place. Well, maybe not all over the place but anywhere within about 1 moa of my POA. I also noticed that the mirage seemed to be very very heavy and it shouldn't have been given the conditions. In fact, the mirage was heavier than I have experienced before, to the point I couldn't see the target clearly, and it seemed to get worse the more I shot. The same thing happened on the second 30 round series.
So my question is this. Does this sound like mirage caused by heat from the barrel and could that cause the POI shift I saw? I should mention that I shot the 30 rounds in about 15 minutes so heat dissipation was even less.