Night shooting in high humidity

[ohossack1845]

I was recently shooting a nighttime run and gun competition and came across the problem Iv faced before but not to this extent. It’s been humid in Oklahoma and dew points have made it remain so at night. When firing my carbine the air in front of me would condense and create a visible “cloud” that would severely reduce visibility through my optics(lvpo) and white light(steam light profax hlx). I would have to wait several seconds for it to clear then fire again. Any suggestions on how to mitigate this?

 

[Oak City Tactics]

I've always found shoot and move. Change location a step or two right or left. Change elevation up or down. This happens alot at our range which is in the south and adjacent to the lake. Find the clean space between you and the target.

 

[Mr Hardy]

A higher candela light will help some. A light with less spill too will burn through better without obstructing your vision.

 

[ohossack1845]

Thank you! Any recommendations on a light to try?

 

[Mr Hardy]

I’ve been happy with the modlite okw, but I haven’t tried everything and I know there’s some new stuff out now that looks promising, and probably new stuff on the horizon all the time.

Personally I have found that in those conditions lights with spill don’t punch through and seem to create a wall of light between you and the target. Only the hottest hotspots will burn through (maybe, depending on how bad it is). The okw will not have the spill if you want that, but I have found, on my rifles that the heavy spill isn’t necessary. I prefer having the candela for pretty much everything now, at least rifle related. I’m sure the new surefire is similar, but I have only tried it once, and it seems similar.

For a competition match, I can understand how that could effect your stage plan and execution. A positive with modlite is you could run 1 body and multiple heads. If you are worried about not liking one. Then for competition you could run the one you liked best for that individual match until you tuned your rig to where you want it.