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  • Post last modified:April 9, 2023

Shooting while facing intense sun glare is annoying at an outdoor range. This can be challenging even if you have sunglasses on, or using an top quality optic.

Here are 7 aiming tips while facing the sun to positive identify targets, what's behind the target, and hit accurately.

Tip 1 - Repositioning

shooting into the sun red dot sight

Try to reposition where you are to get out of indirect sunlight is very helpful. 

  • Place targets on the range that don't end up facing the sun during sunset 
  • Find shaded areas
  • Use sunshade for long range scopes
  • Place hand over the front objective lens a little
  • Real life situations may require different tactics 

The goal is not to look directly into the sun as much as possible, so the shooter can clearly identify the target and what's behind before sending rounds down range.

Tip 2 - Hearing Brimmed Hat

Twisted the brim of the hat to prevent glare on a scope’s rear ocular lens. This is very helpful to shade the objective lens when spotting a target or shooting.

If the sun glare is too intense, shooters may have to cover the eyes with one hand, use the hat’s brim to cover the edge of the objective lens of the scope.

A hat is a good substitute for a scope’s sunshade. This works for:

Tip 3 - Wear Polarized Sunglasses

Polarized lens sunglasses features laminated filter to eliminate horizontally oriented light glare, and only allow vertically oriented light to get through.

Tip 4 - Always Keep The Lens Clean

sig romeo5 front lens

Keeping the lens clean helps the shooter see through the optic better under any light. Just wipe the lens clean and get right into business.

No one likes driving a car with a dirty window shield while facing the sun, and the same thing applies here.

Tip 5 - Tinted Lens Can Be Helpful

holosun hm3x magnifier

Optics with tinted lens can be usefully to combat the sun glare when combined with wearing a pair of sunglasses and a brimmed hat.

Tip 6 - Dial Up The Brightness

leupold deltapoint pro red dot indirect sunlight

Turn up the red dot brightness helps a lot under bright day light. Just make sure to dial it down when transitioning into a low light environment.

For some red dot sights, the glare may wash out the dot regardless how bright the user has dialed it up.

Tip 7 - Use A Large MOA Dot

deltapoint pro parallax

For close range applications, a large size MOA dot is much more visible and easier to see under bright sunlight.

Typically a larger dot reticle appears to be visible and round even if the brightness is dialed up high so the shooter can see (Even with slight astigmatism)