Bullet trace

Sorry, I haven't spotted trace from my rshots through my rifle scope, but if some info on the atmospherics from when I used my spotting scope to see another shooter's trace helps, here goes.

The temp that day was a balmy 51 degress (NOv.12 in Northwest Ohio) and the session was punctuated with precipitation that ranged from a steady drizzle to moderate rain. I had to put on rain gear about twenty minutes in. Wind at my range really isn't worth mentioing, as the place is surrounded by trees. Relative humidity averaged about 74%. It stayed pretty cloudy all day.

My spotting scope is a Vortex Razor HD with a 65 mm objective and I had their fixed 30x eyepiece with mil reticle in. Spotting trace from a .223/.556 at 200 yards was easy. .308 and 6.5 CR at 300? Not a problem. Pretty neat, actually.

The only time I spotted trace through my IOR 3.5-18X50 was for another shooter, but it was much warmer and humidity was right around 50%. I usually have the mag set at about 10x. I doubt that I'll see trace from my own shots soon, as 300 meters is all we have for now and I usually just get to see the impact on steel by the time my eyes open again.

Hope that helps some.

I could see it once shooting at 1000. It was sunny, calm, temp was around 70 degrees don't remember the humidity or bp because I never took it(we started at 500 and walked it in at 1000 so I never took the usual measurements). I was shooting my Ruger American Predator in 6.5 creedmoor with a vortex viper PST 6-24x50 scope set on 24x shooting Hornady precision hunter 143gr ammo. The only reason I could see it was because I have a JP recoil eliminator on it and the thing doesn't move. I was catching the trace right before it hit the target. I'm certain it was pure dumb luck that I was seeing it but I saw most of the 20+ rounds I fired.

You don't need a lot of anything except natural point of aim. On some sunny days at silhouette matches I will often see bullets moving downrange with naked eyes as spotter. Looks like a flying copper smear when the sun is just right. The spotting scope just magnifies that. What you need do see it as the shooter is natural point of aim. Without that you won't get it at all. Then, the terrain and lighting comes in to play. Best results seem to come from light backgrounds. Dark backgrounds, especially shaded bits like targets set in culdesacs surrounded by trees. I get best effect shooting over flat country with light colored ground and ground cover that reflects a lot of light back upward and where the horizon and bullet path is uninterrupted by sources of shade, especially trees. Sun coming from behind you will probably help a bit. If you use too much magnification you will probably have trouble seeing it as a shooter. You'll lose it out the top of the reticle on a long enough shot (over 500m) and not see it again till it hits.

Start with using the lowest magnification you can effectively engage the target with. Then get your NPOA nailed. Then, find a target around 500yrds away so you have a better chance.

As spotter, the most useful thing is to be set up with the spotting scope as close to directly behind the shooter as possible and a bit higher up than the rifle scope. You'll find there that excessive magnification is counter productive.

Last bit, try to learn to keep your eyes open if the bang makes you blink, work through that. It's hard and takes a lot of practice.

Thanks for the info

I can often see my shooting partner's trace through my T5Xi 3-15. Recently I've been giving a lot of focus into getting into the best natural point of aim and have been able to catch just a glimpse of my own bullet's trace at the very end of it's trajectory. I find it helps to also load the bipod to minimize how much the rifle departs from my natural point of aim after recoil. Also being on a relatively lower magnification setting will help you see more of the entire arc of the trace.

Shooting a Savage 10 FCP HS Precision in .308 Win.

Just as a side note, and to build off of what ballisticxlr was saying: just this weekend I was shooting a target at night at 220 yards. I had a spotlight to my rear illuminating the target I was nailing with some 77 gr handloads from my AR. Through my 9x scope at full power and also with my naked eye I could see the flash of copper fly through the air. The rear illumination combined with the copper jacket at the rear of the bullets, and their relatively low velocity made spotting the trace quite easy and entertaining.