I'm in Spring Branch neighbor!
That's awesome feedback. Hopefully I can shed some more light on what you were experiencing. Because the spotting scopes only have a focus knob, they are usually do not have a Parallax adjustment. Focusing is not the same as Parallax. So when you adjust your parallax you are looking for the mirage before your target... so in your case you were actually able to see the mirage because the spotter was not as powerful, so you couldn't wash out the mirage that is there, just not super visible. Once you zoom into a target you pretty much only see the mirage that's closets to your target. With a rifle scope to look for mirage you adjust your parallax from your position all the way to the target, that gives you the most accurate wind and mirage reading.Well Sebo, here's my range report. Bear in mind, I belong to a small private membership only club and the furthest firing range is 400 yards. The outcome, however, was interesting to me. I'll start by saying that previously to today, I had always checked out the 85mm spotting scope.
Today, I checked out a Vortex Diamondback HD 16-48x65mm and a Vortex Viper HD 20-60x85mm (my usual). It was very interesting to me to find that I could actually "see" the wind mirage with the Diamondback (the lesser powered scope) and not so much with the more powerful Viper. Bear in mind I'm well over 21 years old...lol...have myopia and astigmatism.
The Viper was better, for me, to see bullet holes at 400 yards but not so much the wind mirage. Hence, I really never noticed in the past as I pretty much gaged my shots watching the wind flag or vegetation. Where I hunt here in Central, TX my shots never exceed 400 yards. 90% are within 200. Thanks so much for bringing up the subject. I learned something today!