Do sun shades really make a difference

Yes if shooting into sun (well, not AT sun ). The glare on objective lens will cloud your view without sunshade.

I've tested with and without. Definitely noticeably better image(less "washed out") through my scopes(Athlon Midas Tac, Hawke Sidewinder, Vector Continental, Delta Stryker) when looking toward the sun or glare, particularly at higher magnifications. I also noticed that the image seemed darker in really low light(dusk).

I find them useful when squirrel hunting. Shooting up into the trees they help cut the glare. They're help a lot when using the Tactacam.

I hadn’t considered using them to benefit the quality of recorded footage. Interesting point.

never use them. might start to try it filming se how it does

If you were hunting and there was a possibility where the sun could be reflected off the objective lens, they would be good to have.

I hunt and shoot FT. I used them for years. A couple of years ago I decided to try flash kills. I don’t use either now.
Unless my target(s) are in such a location the glare of the sun affects my ability to clearly see I don’t have them arbitrarily mounted. I carry them with me just in case though. They will limit the light gathering capabilities of the scope when there is no glare thus making the target ever so slightly darker.
I had a flash kill on a scope last year on a hunting trip using a Tactacam. Although to my eye, the image was sharp and clear, the videos did not have the sharpness and clarity I hoped for.

My Vector Veyron came with a kill flash instead of a traditional sun shade, and this scope, more than my others, really needs the glare reduction. I also use this cheap universal sun shade, which really helps. It looks silly, but I don’t mind at all.

Another side benefit is that a sunshade will offer a bit of protection for the front lens on your scope. Keeps dust and scratches a few inches farther away.
Kenny

@davecole I was wondering if a kill flash shared many benefits with a sunshade. Thanks for the bit about how it affected your video quality. I had some low-light footage on a squirrel and could not figure out why it came out the way that it did. I don’t even consider the effect of kill flash on the light gathering ability of the objective lens or the video quality.

If your gun's out in the sun lonng enough to get hot a shade can help reduce mirage from the barrel/airtube.

My range faces the West. So YES, I need one for late afternoon/evening shooting!

As mentioned in a few replys above…sometimes they are necessary to reduce glare. They are east enough to thread on and off

They work sometimes in some situations. Terrible answer! right. When the sun is low in the sky or directly in front of me. They really don't. My most convent range is out of my back door shooting west and I have tried everything. 12" black cardstock rolled into a long shade taped on the scope won't work when the sun is low. The only thing I have found to work great in that situation is to have a black shade cloth hanging in front of me from the rafters and just high enough not to block my vision. Also as said above when the sun is shining into the back of your scope or into your eye in that situation all I have found to be 100% is a cloth over my head and scope to block the light. But when the sun is not too low or off to the left or right they work great and I use them. Just saying there will be times that they won't work.

Hey Hawk,, Yep ,they sure do. My range faces West so I'm always shooting with a setting sun above or behind my targets. Most of my scopes r Hawks 2-7x32 with the honey-comb thingy but I do have an extension piece for my Hawke 2-7X32 I have on my Flash bull-pup and it works really well. By the way,,the Hatsan FlashPup with the Hawke 2-7 X 32 with the extended (3")(?) sun-shade is a really nice combo.

The 100 and 50 ranges at my gun club facing almost SE, I have a sunshade tube on my Falcon but nothing on Nikko and that is making me some problems when shooting about noon.
Somewhere back two years ago I saw that somebody posted a website from a maker.
I would need one killflash with 62mm thread and one 64mm.

It also depends if you have good anti-reflective coatings on your glass. I've done some side to side comparisons and it makes a huge difference.

Having just moved from AZ, I have always used sunshades. I might not NEED them now, but to me they add a negligible amount of weight and have a significant benefit if shooting near the sun’s angle (early morning/late evening), so I don’t intend to stop using them on optics where they’re an option.