Seeing a 22lr in flight

[chillywig]

What does it take to see a 22LR bullet in flight? I was shooting today at 200 and 300 yards and do not believe I saw any bullets. I know I've seen them in the past but did not see any today. Do I need better lighting, better scope or better eyes? Today it was overcast with a few quick showers shooting center x. Scope is a razor G3 6X36 on 36 power. The berms are grass and dirt, targets are smallish white steel. The 4 berms are 50, 100, 200 and 300

And much to my surprise. I shot a group at 200 before the rain started in pretty hard. Then shot another group. Same size same position. How is that possible? Rain drops don’t affect the bullets path or the bullets squeezed between every drop for 200 yards?

 

[Aftermath]

What does it take to see a 22LR bullet in flight? I was shooting today at 200 and 300 yards and do not believe I saw any bullets. I know I've seen them in the past but did not see any today. Do I need better lighting, better scope or better eyes? Today it was overcast with a few quick showers shooting center x. Scope is a razor G3 6X36 on 36 power. The berms are grass and dirt, targets are smallish white steel. The 4 berms are 50, 100, 200 and 300

And much to my surprise. I shot a group at 200 before the rain started in pretty hard. Then shot another group. Same size same position. How is that possible? Rain drops don’t affect the bullets path or the bullets squeezed between every drop for 200 yards?View attachment 8686726

There is a very good study about rain drops hitting bullets and such. LOTS of anecdotal evidence. It's damned near impossible to actually shoot a raindrop.
I can verify that it can have dramatic results. We use to shoot from a nice covered area and shot in every sort of weather, partly because we were in the shade, had radiant heaters, swamp coolers, fans...the rain would have to be blowing in some real serious wind in order for the bench to get wet and that did happen some. Mississippi. Once it was raining so hard we damned near needed hearing protection. Targets beyond 200 were extremely hard to see. None of us could shoot a decent group at 100. To be fair, the wind was also gusting, fluctuating wildly and from several directions but I don't know just how much.

 

[diverdon]

When I shoot a shiny copper .22LR and the angle of the sun is correct i see them. Perhaps 2 hours before sunset shooting south is mostly when I see them.

Same thing with most hand gun bullets. If you have the conditions right and still aren't spotting your own stand over a buddy's right shoulder and catch sight of a few of his bullets in flight.

 

[walterg]

I have the best luck with the eley silver bullets found in the Tenex, match and team ammo. Especially during a day with no cloud cover. That silver bullet shines in the sun.

 

[hlee]

Sun behind you. It shines off the base…

 

[Bradu]

When I shoot a shiny copper .22LR and the angle of the sun is correct i see them. Perhaps 2 hours before sunset shooting south is mostly when I see them.

Same thing with most hand gun bullets. If you have the conditions right and still aren't spotting your own stand over a buddy's right shoulder and catch sight of a few of his bullets in flight.

I've had this happen when shooting a 260 and 308 on two different occasions. When the guy told me he could see my bullets through his scope, I thought he was referring to the vapor trail. We switched so he was shooting my rifle and I was observing. You could see it very easily from about 150 yards out to 300 yards.

I had to read up on it when I got home because I still had doubts of what we were watching. One of the coolest experiences shooting that I've had.

 

[kl3309]

What does it take to see a 22LR bullet in flight?

You talkin' about watching the bullet through your scope? What's your reticle? If you've got a vertical stadia line above horizontal, it's obscuring the bullet in flight.
I used to be able to see .22s flying in the upper half of the FOV once the wind grabs it and pushes it out from behind the reticle (that's standard velocity or slower at 24x, between 75 and 200 yds). Lighting didn't seem to make much of a difference.

 

[KnowNothing256]

I’ve practiced seeing them with 22LR, and I find three things help a lot:

- Lighting, both general and on the bullet (direct sun angled from behind seems to be best, dusk and shadow are worst)
- Bullet color (the Eley silver bullet really does make a difference)
- The color of the target (white or other bright background is best)

Your scope is fully capable of seeing it. Try shooting at paper around 80 yds, you should see the bullet easily.

That range, about 70-120 yds, also seems to be the sweet spot for me with regards to how high above LOS the bullet climbs. As targets get farther, the bullet carries too far above my eye’s focus to track well.

 

[obx22]

If I could see them consistently I’d be a happy man.
With setting sun behind me, I’ve watched many from 50-100yds while shooting paper.
On very rare occasions I’ve seen the “trace”, which distorted the light like the water probes in the movie “The Abyss”. A friend was shooting his 223 and when standing at a certain angle behind him a tube of distortion about 5” arched to the target time and again. We switched to rimfires and I was blown away watching this same effect (although smaller in diameter).
Through a scope it’s easier to see the slug if you are focused slightly closer than the target and bear in mind it will arch in from above. My favorite experience was firing low velocity shorts through a Contender with a 10X scope at 50y. The little pills were definitely flying in a helix to the target! With today’s higher speed cameras I’m sure we will start seeing captures of this phenomenon.

 

[Hoser]

Zoom out a little to get a bigger field of view. If the bullet climbs out of your field of view you might not catch it until it is pretty close to the target.

When shooting past 200-300 yards, I am rarely above 20X if I want to see the bullet.