Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Optics Mil vs moa and why

I understand. On some hunting optics, counting clicks is the only way to do it as the turrets aren't labeled. However, the best advise to someone new to twisting knobs is to stop thinking about clicks. The # of clicks is irrelevant when you have turrets clearly marked in MOA or MRAD.

mathman put it well. Whatever scale your scope and reticle are based off of, make your charts for that. It keeps everything fast and simple.

That would make such a scope unsuitable for the purpose of dialing. For example, my 3-9x42 Meopro is definitely a set and forget scope.

That makes sense. I tend to think in clicks sometimes,only because my first lr scope was a leupold various xII with target turrets. It had no numbers on the turrets, which needless to say, made the adjusting more difficult. With today's greatly improved equip,you don't have to think in terms of clicks.

Yep. That's one of the reasons I did not care for the Meopta and Zeiss Conquest on certain rifles. I replaced with a Leupold VX3i with CDS turret.

Even with well marked turrets, I still think mrads have an advantage. My scopes adjust 5 mils per revolution. The equivalent MOA scopes would be 15 minutes per revolution. For an 850 yard shot that may require 6.2 mils/21.3 minutes of correction. With the mrad scope, that is one turn plus 1.2 mils. With the MOA scope, it is one turn plus 6.3 minutes. It is hardly challenging to break that 6.3 minutes into 6 minutes plus one click but it is something extra to think about. Obviously, you can set up your drop chart to display that correction as 21.25 minutes but why add an extra decimal place if you don't need to? You are also needing to think in quarters rather than tenths for the final adjustment. If you have the option to go base 10, it seems logical to do so. I know our country hasn't, but that is another matter.

I maintain that if your approach is in terms of angles then just turn the knob to the closest one matching the correction on your chart. That would work even if your units were in a base 7 number system.

True, but there's less thinking involved with base 10 compared to fractional quarters because the numbers on your chart and turret match. No rounding or approximating at all.

So what if my chart calls for .13 mils?

You need to change your chart

The same could be done by pre-rounding on an MOA chart.

True, but the rounded numbers on a MRAD chart each represent a click on the turret, which isn't the case with even rounded figures on an MOA chart. Again, both work and it's not a huge deal, just one less thing to think about.

Eg.

MRAD dope of 5.3 equals dialing to the "5" plus 3 clicks.
MOA dope of 5.75 equals dialing to the "5" plus 3 clicks.

One is more intuitive than the other.

Plus, the brain tends to work better and faster with smaller numbers, so it's quicker to see "12.4 Mil" and figure out that you need two full revolutions on a 5 Mil turret, then dial to the 2 and add 4 clicks, than it is to see "42.5 MOA" and divide by 15 for a 15 MOA turret, get 2 full revolutions, dial to the 12, and add 2 clicks.

It's just a minor speed and simplicitly difference.

You're a dumbass.



You're welcome,
Dave

It only matters when your on a team.

If the group speaks in MRAD, go that way.

Trying to a conversion on the fly sucks!!

So if you have a spotter, make sure your speaking the same language.



OH... if your using ballistic Calculators some of the older portable ones' only do Mil's.....

New ones will do either.

Just say'n

Thanks for the info.

Gonna go with mil.

Good call.




Dave

Thank you. I am complete.

I re-read that and almost spilled my coffee ! LMAO Gary

If you can't think of the distance you need to adjust/move POI to in MILS, you're going to have difficulty with Mils on the turrets.

If you can, then MILS are a little simpler, as is all the metric system............but as someone else said, you can't be trying to do conversions on the fly.

JMHO

MM

Simplest answer is MIL.

Why do you need to do any conversions? The reticle will tell you how many mils you need to adjust.

John