So this probably already has been done or exists...


Mirage is kind of really a pain in the ass. Especially with a silencer.  After about 10-20 shots through a can you can’t see shit outside a 300 yards or so.  A suppressor cover just delays the inevitable a little bit at the cost of potentially overheating your silencer.

What if you offset the scope like 2-3” off the rifle to look through the optic with your other eye?  Like a big offset scope mount. Same cheekweld, just use your other eye.  

Horizontal offset would be no big deal; set the horizontal cross at like 500 yards and the horizontal error would be less than 2-3” all the way to 1000 yards.  Even then, it’s just a geometric variable you can build into your dope and dial in... it’d be less correction than even just spin drift induces.  Basically lateral offset is a ballistic nothing burger.

But you’d be way off the barrel/suppressor centerline. Optical center would be well over 1+ suppressor diameters and 2-3 barrel diameters.  No heat mirage.

Has this been done?  
If not, why not?

Seems like it could work if right handed and left eye dominant, but not sure how that would work if right handed/right eye dominant.  Depends on how effective your brain is at interpreting the sight picture with your non-dominant eye.  I haven't really tried it, but now I'm going to have to.  Rifle balance could be an issue with the weight hanging to the left.  Or what about a mount that can shift over to the left on-demand for when shooting with a can instead of being permanently mounted to the left?  Would have to be a very precisely made mount to be able to slide over and not lose zero though.

Would be cool for us cross dominant eye shooters.

Yeah, like an offset base.  I don’t think for magnified shooting dominant eye would matter one bit; just close the other eye.  It’s not like both eyes open shooting a couple hundred yards at 10X+ magnification helps anyways. Other than to glance at my bubble level my off-scope eye isn’t doing much anyways as it is now.

It’s just with all the goofy shit that gamers do in competitions, you’d think you see this.  I know competitors will sometime use carbon fiber “mirage shades” on barrels when allowed - better than nothing, but not ideal.  Every PRS guy with a can uses a cover.  But why fight it? Just move your like of sight.

Here’s a 2-1/4” offset weaver or picatinny adapter.

Certainly it's been done.  Generally on rifles which were not designed for mounting a scope and a few custom jobs for one eyed shooters.

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If you can shoot that enough for mirage to be screwing you, you’ve already probably separated your shoulder... mirage is of little concern.

They have. It's not a new idea

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It was done out of necessity, ie, how to we put a scope on this while being able to load it and work the action.

Offset mounts can cause POI shifts due to mount weakness, in addition to having to account for windage shifts at different ranges, you restrict the rifle to being useful off of only one shoulder. It also makes the firearm more clumsy. Stuff hanging off the side will get banged around a *lot* more than stuff on top will

I know a number of rifles have done it out of necessity. But I’m more asking if it’s ever been done for the express intent of mirage mitigation...

POI offset is pretty trivial and can be accounted for when zeroing.  Set the horizontal crossing to an offset that linearly extrapolates to crossing centerline at 50% max range and then your horizontal error due to lateral optic offset will always be less than the amount optic offset itself.  An easy to determine offset that contributes less than 2-3 inches of max error (regardless of range) even if completely unaccounted for is a nothing-burger.

You still run into the issues of difficulty with mounts and bulk.

Seems like dealing with heat mirage is preferred to having a mount that might be incapable of being zero'd, having a gun that is only useable off one shoulder at a time, and having your optic more vulnerable to damage.

Why not use a baffle over the barrel (and over the suppressor, in your case)?  

That is the most common method I've seen used, very common, even.  

The baffle can be made from fabric or it can be a sheet of metal or plastic, like a vertical blind.


How to Make a Mirage Shield

I thought this graphic was very interesting.