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Any tips for night shooting?

5K views 16 replies 15 participants last post by  JACK 
#1 ·
My wife & I have starting shooting in the league and our scores are down a bird or two from our normal average. Any tips for night shooting? I know...shoot more. What about hold points? Higher gun? Lower gun? Also, where to look? I'm finding it hard to focus on the target. She complains of the same.
Thanks
Scott
 
#2 ·
Scott Morris I don't know your age but you must understand that as you get older your vision is affected more by light or the lack of it than it was before.

I had clear lenses made for my shooting classes for night shooting. I didn't know when I did it if it would help or not but I tried it. Well it made a difference I found that my very light gold lenses actually robbed my eyes of some very valuable light.

I also found that a little more positive target recognition before I moved the gun made a difference. Some of these differences are very slight but when added together the difference becomes much bigger.

Bob Lawless
 
#3 ·
Pale yellow glasses. Beyond that it will test your ability's to focus harder on seeing the bird and ignoring the beads. Also, I have found the early evening hours are often windier thus making targets a little more challenging. I think most would agree that loosing one or two targets off your average is to be expected.

Robert
 
#4 ·
I prefer vermillion glasses for night shooting. They have several advantages over clear. White targets do not have streak tails. The background (at least at my club) completely disappears, preventing distractions. Most importantly, it reduces the glare off of green grass, and I find that glare quite distracting.

Another thing that helps me is that I have a Uni-Dot fiber-optic sight to help prevent cross-firing. This sight works out well at night, because otherwise I have a hard time seeing the end of the barrel. If you start trying to look for the barrel, you'll miss. On the other hand, fiber-optic sights won't work if you look directly at them, either. You must use peripheral vision to bring the dot to the target. If you look directly at the dot, you'll miss. Some people cannot resist trying to use the dots to aim like a rifle, and thus these sights will not work for them.

BTW, none of the above applies during sunset or when the clouds have turned red, orange or pink. That's bad enough with clear glasses, but especially bad with vermillion. Wait for dark.
 
#10 ·
I stopped shooting at night when the president of our club, who is now in jail, refused to continue the practice of shooting white targets. The white targets were easier for us old guys to see and they put on a great show when broken...like shooting a star, they would explode in reflective bits.

JON
 
#11 ·
If your shooting league only and not registered then I suppose you have to shoot night shoots to stay with the group. If you become interesedt in registered shooting then I'd suggest not shooting at night except under very good lighting conditions. Shooting when your vision is impaired will interupt your timing. If you do shoot at night then aquire a set of shooting glasses that best defines the color of targets you are shooting. Targets recognition will differ from natural sun light. I find when having to shoot off at night to use a clear lens most of the time but some times a light yellow or light orange is better. You'll have to try lens colors for the club and target colors where you are shooting. Have fun. Post-2
 
#12 ·
Very Light yellow and most important, is a non-reflective coating. At night, there is alot of reflection (off your bead, the barrel, snow,) Decot and others offer such coatings on their lense.

I actually see the bird better as night and tend to shoot too quick. Focus your eyes over the house where you have the best overall view , identify the target, then go to it. Smooth is better than fast.
 
#13 ·
Scott..I have had a real problem with low light shooting in the past. I have, with the help of the good people on this site, virtually eliminated all of said problems. First of all I purchased a pair of CLEAR lens glasses with ANTI GLARE coating on them. Then I started using a high as possible hold point at dusk and for night shooting. Since then I have started using the glasses in virtually all conditions. I use a hat to shade my eyes in very bright light. I have also adopted a higher hold point in most shooting situations. In low light conditions, we struggle more than what you would think to acquire the target. Firstly, I think that you need all of the ambient light available to shoot as well[or nearly as well]as in daylight. Hence the clear lenses. I don't know why the anti glare coating makes a difference, but for me, it really does. The higher hold point assures less gun movement when you do see the bird. You're not "chasing" the bird as much. Good luck.Bill in MI
 
#14 ·
Thanks for all of the help. I'll try a few dif. lens colors to see what works best. I did shoot w/ clear lenses @ night this week & it did seem to help. I actually shot a little better this weekend during the daylight than normal. Maybe night shooting is good practice?
Thanks again
Scott
 
#17 ·
Never heard of anyone going to the big house because he refused to throw white targets. HOw long did he get?

All my close by clubs have to clse at dark or dusk. But I will tell you a secret. If you have minor cataracts, clear lenses work good daytime too.
 
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