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Shooting a red dot into the sun


Jsjac

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I was at a match on Saturday and on the last stage the sun was low and we were shooting into the sun. 

 My dot was totally washed out. I had to put my support hand over the dot to shield it from the sun.   

 This is the first time I have had this happen. 

 Any tips to help with this. 

I was using a Sig Romeo 1 not the pro. 

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I had that problem with a few red dot sights.  Shooting in the sunlight here in Arizona the wrong dot will wash out.  My solution was to buy C-Mores.  They have the intensity to be nice and bright even on the sunniest days.  I now have C-More Railways on all of my open guns.  I use the highest setting and the dot is easy to find.

 

 

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Shooting into the sun is not a problem if your dot is shielded.  You do get reflections which make it harder to make out the dot.  I'm more bothered by the opposite; that is bright low sun behind you shining on white steel challenge targets.  That was the case on Sat and I could not see my dots.  The 2 MOA on the RFRO gun was invisible, even at the brightest setting.  The 5 MOA on the SRO was visible, but you had to look for it.

 

I just switched out the Sig Romeo 2 MOA today and replaced it with a Match Dot II that I use on my 22 bullseye gun.   It has 2, 4, 6, and 8 MOA dots, plus an 8 in a very bright circle and an 8 with an illuminated cross hair.  It also has a 2" long hood on the front, so shading is not a problem.  Another nice feature is the polarizing filter that can be placed on the front.  You can rotate the filter to block out a lot of light.  You can see the dot brightly with your right eye, superimposed on the target visible with your left eye.

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  • 2 weeks later...
8 hours ago, Hdiamond said:

Hwansik Kim posted something a few weeks back that he's taping his optic over for this situation.

 

I do most of my practice like that anyways, so I could see that being a very effective strategy.

I was thinking the same thing.  The tough part is knowing if you are going to need the tape before hand.  

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Slap some blue or green painters tape on a random flat smooth object in your shooting bag... when the sun comes up, pull off a swatch and stick on scope.  I did that for nats with a glasses case, but didn't end up needing it.

 

It's kind of funny that taping the front of the lens was something we did way back when last century to learn dot shooting with both eyes open, but I never heard of doing it for sun-glare until just recently where it works well.

 

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20 minutes ago, egd5 said:

By taping the optic do you mean using the tape to make a hood over the front of it?

Probably means covering the front of the lens. If you shoot both eyes open you still see the dot on target.

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8 minutes ago, egd5 said:

Humm, that sounds weird, but I'll try it sometime.

It works. You can leave front cover down on a red dot optic and still see dot on target. I learned that on Aimpoint pro

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tried it with masking tape,,, just saw a dot on the tape,,  didnt seem to work at all. Played around a bit squinting and such but nope.  I was shooting small targets, vs a USPSA target,, but didnt work for my eyes at all.

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11 minutes ago, Joe4d said:

tried it with masking tape,,, just saw a dot on the tape,,  didnt seem to work at all. Played around a bit squinting and such but nope.  I was shooting small targets, vs a USPSA target,, but didnt work for my eyes at all.

 

You must be so strongly one eye dominant your brain just ignores what your other eye sees.  You did have both eyes open when you tried this, right.

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On 11/18/2020 at 4:57 PM, hermes_actual said:

Right, because it's hard to find tape at matches...😜

More about not knowing there is a glare until you make ready.  Unless you are carrying tape just in case it is too late.

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15 hours ago, Degnan said:

More about not knowing there is a glare until you make ready.  Unless you are carrying tape just in case it is too late.

Maybe it's just my club, but most everyone sticks a few strips of tape to their pants/shorts for pasting targets. Also, the sun doesn't move that fast - it's pretty easy to predict glare when you're on deck.

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