Part 2
MIL vs. MOA Reticles
Now I will get into the meat of the topic. Everything you have read to this point is considerations when buying an optic. Now we are going to learn how to use tactical reticles.
If you decide that you want to become a better shooter and want to be able to hit targets further out then you need to know how to correct for it and not just guess by aiming high. The first barrier you are going to have to overcome is you have to be open to the idea of external dials for adjustment. I think most guys with hunting back grounds shy away from that because they just do not know how to use them so it is a turn off. They have been taught just sight it in a little high at 100 yards and if the target is past 200 yards then aim high. Well your aim is a guess unless you have something in the reticle to use like a "grid" (MIL or MOA) or BDC (Ballistic Drop Compensated reticle). And you know how far away the target actually is.
The thing I like about the "grid" reticles such as the MIL based or MOA based is that they will work for any gun shooting any caliber or bullet. You just have to figure out where on that grid you are going to hit with your particular bullet / velocity combo. This is very easy with a ballistics program or just going out to the range and shooting at varying distances.
The last and most important choice to get 100% out of your scope is the reticle and understanding how you use the turret adjustments IN CONJUNCTION WITH the reticle. MATCH THE TURRET ADJUSTMENTS TO THE RETICAL. IF YOU DON’T QUIT READING AS THE FOLLOWING IS PIONTLESS.
What I mean by this is if you have a MIL based reticle such as Mil-Dot or any variation such as NightForce’s MLR, Leupold’s TMR, ect then get the MIL turrets (0.1Mrad per click)
If you do not understand or do not want to learn MIL and are comfortable with MOA then that is fine. Get a reticle that is MOA based and get the turret adjustments in MOA (usually 1/4 MOA but some are 1/8, 1/2 or 1 MOA per click). Just make sure they match. Reticle/Turret MIL/MIL or MOA/MOA do not go MIL reticle / MOA turrets.
Ok now what is a MIL and what is a MOA? The whole point of the following is to try to explain and understand how much the bullet is going to move when you dial correction into the scope turrets.
A MIL is a milliradian which is a unit of angular measure. Most people think MIL is metric and MOA is a standard unit and both of those are entirely WRONG. It is just a unit. The reason most people think standard and metric is because of the way the math of the two reticles work out.
MOA
1 Minute of Angle is a slice of a circle. There are 360 degrees in a circle. Each degree can be further subdivided into 60 Minutes. 1 Degree = 60 Minutes. So one minute or one MOA is 1/60th of a degree. Now we need to know what kind of a change is this going to make to our impact point.
Think of yourself as standing in the middle of a large pie and you shoot a laser to the rim of the pie that is 1000 yards away. Now walk along that lasered line and every 100 yards put a marker and let’s call that line A. So you have 10 markers on line A. Now come back to the center of the pie and turn your laser 1 MOA and shoot your laser again to the rim of the pie. 1000 yards away. Walk that line and every 100 yards put a marker and let’s call that line B. The two lines would form a *slice* of pie and the angle between those two lines would be 1 MOA or 1 Minute of Angle. Now what we want to know is from the markers on line A to the markers on line B how far apart those two markers are. This is how far the bullet is going to move when you dial adjustment into the scope. 1 MOA will move your point of impact 1.047197580733 inches at 100 yards. Most people just drop the decimal and say 1 MOA will move your point of impact 1* at 100 yards. The 200 yard markers would be 2* apart, the 300 yard markers would be 3* apart, so on and so forth.
Now if your scope is in 1/4 MOA per click adjustments then 1 click is going to move your bullet 0.25* at 100 yards, 0.50* at 200, 0.75* at 300, 1* at 400……If your scope is 1/2 MOA per click then 1 click would move the bullet 0.5* at 100, 1* at 200, 1.5* at 300, 2* at 400 ect.
MIL
A MIL is a milliradian. A circle has 2 PI Radians or 6.28 approximately radians. Now forget about that for a minute and let’s go back to our example of standing in the pie but now for MILS instead of MOA.
So now we have shot our line A and now we turn the laser 1 MIL instead of 1 MOA and shoot line B. How far apart are our markers? 1 MIL = 3.6 inches at 100 yards. So at 200 it would be 2 x 3.6* = 7.2* inches, 300 yards 3 x 3.6* = 10.8*, ect. Now the MIL based scopes are in 0.1 MILs per click.
One click is going to move your point of impact 0.36*/100 yards. So you would need 10 clicks to equal 3.6* at 100.
OR
1 MIL = 10cm displacement at 100m. But each click is 0.1 MILs. So if we had done the pie example but went to 1000m and put the markers every 100m instead of yards it would be 1cm per click at 100m, 2cm at 200m 3cm at 300m ect…..
So now that we know 1 MIL = 3.6* at 100 yards and that MIL turrets are 0.1 MIL / click or 0.36*/click at 100 yards.
We also know that 1 MOA = 1* (dropping the decimals) at 100 yards. Most tactical style turrets in MOA are 1/4 MOA so 1 click would be 0.25* at 100 yards.
So MIL turrets that are 0.1 MIL/click are a more coarse adjustment than 1/4 MOA/click turrets. So if you want a finer adjustment this may be a reason to go with MOA instead of MIL.
Ok now that your brain is hurting forget all the numbers and just think simple. I know when I make a click on the scope it is going to make a change to where the bullet impacts. How much is going to depend on if I am using MIL or MOA turrets and if I am using MOA it will further depend on what the turrets are calibrated for, meaning 1/8, 1/4, 1/2, or 1MOA. We all know bullets like all objects on earth fall. How much they fall before they get to the target will depend on the bullet itself and the velocity it left the barrel with. Lucky for us there are some really good ballistic programs that can tell us exactly how much the bullet is going to drop due to gravity and move left / right due to wind. All you need to know is the bullet you are using which will determine the drag characteristics and what velocity the bullet had when it left the gun. I use Ballistic FTE which is a $20 app for the iPhone. Having it on a portable device is very convenient to bring with you to the range or to a match.
Again the most important thing is to match the turrets (adjustment knobs) to the same scale that the reticle (grid / ruler) is in. So MIL/MIL or MOA/MOA DON'T MAKE THE MISTAKE and get a MIL reticle / MOA adjustments. Then you have to remember 2 numbers for each distance. So if you have a scope such as a Leupold Mark 4 with a Mil Dot retical (or any scope for that matter) with 1/4 MOA dials it is ass backwards.
Example for a 100 yard zero at 400 yards with my gun/ammo combo I need 2.2 MILS of elevation correction to correct for bullet drop. Which converted to MOA would be 7.5 MOA high. So if I had a MIL/MOA scope then I would have to remember hold over 2.2 Mils if I am not going to dial or dial 7.5 MOA to correct for the drop. Two numbers to remember instead of one.
If the previous example had matched the reticle and turrets then in MOA/MOA then all you need to know is if I have a 100 yard zero and I aim 7.5 MOA high (use the reticle and aim 7.5 MOA up) or just dial 7.5 MOA on your elevation knob and you can hold cross hairs. Same to be said if you prefer MIL based then either hold 2.2 MILs high or dial 2.2 MILs up and hold cross hairs. Now you only have one number to remember or have taped to your stock. It is really easy to make a sticker in excel.
Sighting in and using the reticle for adjustments.
This is the easiest thing in the world to do when you match the reticle and turrets. Ok you are at the range and you shoot your first shot at say 100 yards. You are on the paper but need to adjust. All you have to do is use your reticle to measure how far off you are. Let’s say you are high and right. To determine exactly how much high and right use the reticle to measure. Say the shot was 2 MILs high, you know this because with the cross hairs over the bull’s eye the shot is even with the second line on the vertical axis and 3 MILs right, again the bullet hole is 3 lines to the right. All you have to do is dial 2 MILs down and 3MILs left and all things being equal your next shot is dead center. Trust me it works.
This is the same principle when you miss but see the splash of the round. Say your elevation was good on a shot but you failed to account for the wind and you see the splash was 1MIL right. Run the bolt and hold one Mil Left and your next shot will impact the target if you broke the first shot clean and the wind held steady. Same thing applies with elevation. If you see where the first round went run the bolt and hold where that round impacted. That is the DOPE (Data On Personal Equipment) you need for that target.
Now if you had not matched the reticle and the turrets and say you had a MIL based reticle and MOA turrets (MIL/MOA) now you have to start converting the MILs to MOA. The conversion would be as follows:
MILS x Distance in yards / 100 x 3.6 (because 1 MIL = 3.6inches at 100 yards) = MOA
So the elevation would be 2 x 100/100 x 3.6 = 7.2 inches or approximately 7 1/4 MOA
The Windage would be 3 x 100/100 x 3.6 = 10.8 inches or approximately 10 3/4 MOA
THIS IS THE REASON YOU MATCH THE TURRETS TO THE RETICLE! As you can see the conversions are a PITA. MATCH THE TURRETS TO THE RETICLE then all you have to do is dial the correction you *measure* using the reticle.
BDC reticle
Some people like them and they work decent but I do not like the BDC reticles. They are calibrated for a specific bullet going a specific velocity under specific atmospheric conditions. Any variation to that and it is off. In my opinion just buy a MIL or MOA reticle and again just learn the "grid" and where your combo is going to hit. Works on any gun with any caliber not just what they etched into the glass for the specific bullet / velocity / atmosphere combo the BDC reticle was intended for.
Ranging
First off the best way to range is with a LRF Laser Range Finder. They will be much more accurate than you will but they do have their own limitations. But for the sake of posterity cause batteries die and LRF’s break I will touch on the subject. Ranging with the reticle depends on you knowing the size of the target and coming up with tight measurements of the target in MILs or MOAs. Slight variables in either of these two numbers can throw off the distance to target. The error becomes dramatic the further out the target is and the more you are off.
For MIL reticles the formula is,
(Size of the target in inches x 27.778) / Size of the target in MILs = Range to target in yards.
Example:
You are looking through your scope at a 72 inch tall target (6 feet) and the bottom of the target is at the crosshair intersection and the top of the target is at the 2 MIL line in your reticle. Do the math to determine the distance.
72in x 27.778 / 2Mil = 1000 So the target is 1000 yards away.
For MOA the formula is:
Size of target in inches / Size of target in MOA x 95.5 = Range to target in yards.
First Focal Plane or Second Focal Plane?
Lastly you need to decide what plane you want your reticle in, First Focal Plane (FFP) or Second Focal Plane (SFP). All reticles will either be FFP or SFP. If as you adjust the magnification the size of the reticle changes and grows or becomes bigger as you increase the zoom then you have a FFP scope. If as you adjust the magnification of your scope the size of the reticle does not change in size then you have a SFP scope. Now you might be wondering why is this important? The answer is for ranging and using the reticle for holdovers instead of dialing in an elevation correction.
If you have a FFP scope and you need to hold 2 MILs over a target then it does not matter what you have the magnification set on. Because as you increase the zoom on the scope and the target gets larger so does the reticle because the reticle *grows* proportionately with the image. So the reticle stays in calibration at all magnification settings. So the 2 MIL line is actually 2 MIL over the target at any magnification.
If you have a SFP then the reticle is calibrated for a specific magnification. Usually it is the highest power the scope can achieve but some manufactures calibrate to 10x. This becomes very important when ranging or holding over to know what power the reticle is calibrated for.
Example: You have a 5-20x50 scope but the reticle is a SFP and is calibrated for 10x. You need to make a shot that calls for 2 MOA elevation correction and want to hold over. If you are at 10x then you hold 2 MOA over. However, assume the target is further away and you need more magnification and you have the reticle set to 20x then the target is going to seem twice as big so you need to hold over twice as much to compensate for the difference. You would need a 4MOA hold on the reticle.
Same to be said when ranging, if the target is far away and you put the scope on 20x and the target takes up 4 MOA of reticle it really is taking up twice as much as it should because the image is twice as large as what the reticle was calibrated for. So you would have to remember that when doing the ranging calculations and use 2MOA instead of the 4MOA the target is taking up.
That is the reason why I like FFP scopes. Your holdovers are the same no matter what magnification the scope is set to. No chance of getting lost or confused. The only down side to FFP scopes is that some people do not like how small the reticles can be at low power. And FFP scopes are more expensive than SFP.
What sets high end optics apart?
What really sets the higher end scopes apart is the clarity of the image due to the glass and the coatings for longer range as well as low light conditions and the precision and repeatability or tracking of the adjustments for dialing corrections for long range shooting. If glass clarity is not a huge concern and all you want to do is zero the scope and never dial in a correction (tracking becomes mute) then a cheap scope may fair just fine as long as it can hold a zero and the reticle does not drift on its own.
The average person wants to zero a deer rifle at 100 yards and will never shoot past 200. You do not need to break the bank to do that. But trust me the saying *You Get What You Pay For* never holds any truer than when speaking optics. All scope brands break. They are mechanical machines made by man. But there are companies with better historical results than others.
Suggested brands:
Schmidt & Bender (S&B) www.schmidtbender.com
Premier Heritage www.premierreticles.com/
Hensoldt-Zeiss http://www.sportoptics.com/zeiss-hen...le-scopes.aspx
NightForce http://nightforceoptics.com/
Vortex www.vortexoptics.com/
US Optics www.usoptics.com
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