Infrared White Wash Due To Air Pressure from Shots

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Ezana4CE

Ezana4CE

Member
Jan 15, 2021
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Texas, United States
Have any night hunters experienced white wash due to the expelled air behind your projectiles? I experienced this on a somewhat cooler humid southern night. I’m wondering if there is a way to work around this. At the time it occurred I was running two IR sources - an integrated IR light within my scope and an external IR torch clamped to my barrel shroud. My thoughts on maybe cutting down on the reflection would be to use the external torch and maybe mounting it below the barrel as opposed to off to the side. Can members who have recently night-hunted with IR scopes and cameras share their experience in this sort of situation? Were you able to work around or at least cut down on this visual effect?
 
Vetmx said:
Maybe try cleaning up the tune on your gun. Sounds like your NV is telling you that you’re wasting too much air.
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@Vetmx You think so? I’m not sure this is the issue. I’m not talking about a lingering plume here. It is for a very brief moment following a shot. It shrouds the impact for about a second. The lastime it occurred after 1am. The ambient temp had dropped noticeably and the relative humidity was still obviously high, especially considering that the water in the pond remained warm as the air cooled.

I recall feeling various parts of the gun to see if and where dew was forming. The metal shroud felt the coolest and synthetic stock felt warmer and dry. The CF bottle (reservoir) felt warmer to the touch than both. I thought that it was odd for the bottle to feel so warm, but there was probably around 210 bar of internal pressure. I figured the denser compressed air inside would take a little while to cool. In my mind it made sense for the air in the reservoir to remain warmer than the ambient air temperature that changes throughout the night considering the metal bottle is wrapped in carbon fiber. Upon shooting, it seemed similar to briefly opening the lid or popping the top on a lukewarm thermos of coffee on a cool morning to take a sip.

My question concerns circumventing the brief whitewash seen after shooting in these conditions. It reminds me of filming through the smoke and muzzle flash of a PB shot at night. It all obscures a critical moment after the shot because light reflects off of the warmer air or smoke in the second scenario. I thought other night hunters or maybe a YouTuber would chime in with a tip or two that they found helpful to work around this for filming purposes.
 
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Airgun-hobbyist said:
Are you able to move the location of the IR light to under the air cylinder? The cylinder and barrel would shadow some of that blast of light reflection on the moisture air that the scope is seeing.
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@Airgun-hobbyist Under the bottle? Currently I am not. Under the barrel? Yes. This is the only suggestion that I came across on YouTube. I just have to see if the cord on my pressure switch is long enough to mount it that way with my current gear. If not, I’ve been looking at another piece of hardware (to buy) that will enable me to do so.
 
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I was able to get a white wash tonight. Fired several shots from inside my house and muzzle right at the edge of window opening. No white wash. Went out and sat on porch. House is 70 degrees, outside is 51 with 74% humidity. Got a brief white wash but it was only visible when I reviewed the footage frame by frame. It had no effect on me seeing my spinner get struck at 100 yards. But it would have if the target was real close. It has to be some kind of reflection off the dense air coming out of our guns when conditions are right.
 
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