Home Forums Hunting & Shooting AR and Tactical Rifles Newby Mil Question

After much research and sale watching I have pulled the trigger on a new scope for my heavy barrel 308 bolt gun. I ordered one of the swfa 3x15 scopes on Black Friday discount. I went back and forth over MOA vs. Mil and while I understand MOA I decided to go with MIL to expand my knowledge base. I have been reading up on and watching several YouTube videos about mil and I have a general understanding but my question is this... If I am going to sight my rifle in at a hundred yards and the swfa is 1/10 mil justments then each click should move the crosshairs about .36 in at 100 yards? Is there another way I should be thinking of this?

Yes.

Think of your adjustments as 0.36 inches per 100 yards.

With the MilQuad reticle, think of it as 1/10th of a mil. Measure where the group landed to where you want it to land with the reticle and adjust accordingly.

You don't need inches when you have a mil ruler right in front of you.

Roger that and thanks for the help. If my logic is correct and you travel the same distance with 3 clicks using mil as you would 4 clicks with moa then wouldn't moa be the more accurate measurement?

Depends on the size of the clicks on the MOA scope. I've seen them as fine as 1/8 MOA, or about 3x the resolution on your 1/10 Mil scope.

You can only be at most 1/2 a click off and the difference between 1/2 of 1/3 vs 1/2 of 1/4 is ~ 0.04"/100 yds or just call it 1 mm. So in theory it could amount to 1 cm difference at 1000 yds. I'd consider that insignificant.

LOL! I do not see any advantage to using mills. Just because artillery uses it? FFS!

If the reticle matches the dials then it don't matter what it's in.

When you have a mil/mil scope, just tell your brain to dispense with the "inches" thing. No need to waste the brain power trying to convert mils to inches. Mil, being a base 10 system, is simpler once you get the hang of it.

The scope I am coming from was the precursor to the Mark 4 and had a mil reticle and 1 MOA turrets. Not really sure why that setup would exist but it will be nice to have a reticle and turrets that match

With a little humor -

Once upon a time...the "tac-tic-cool" item to have was a scope with the "mil-dot" sniper reticle - this was in the early 90s.

During the first AR ban in 1994, the bolt gun community got a huge uplift in the sales of the new evil "black rifle" in the form of a bolt gun (usually .308) and the demand for tactical equipment followed in tow.

Quite a number of consumers wanted a scope with the mil-dot, and 99.9% had never actually used it, or ever would use it as intended.

Leupold saw a hole in the market and plugged it with the mildot reticle in the MOA scope body - they were not the only ones, but it was based on market demand more than actual intended use.

I was once told the MOA was to keep consumers comfortable with the sight-in, and that the shooter was supposed to then set the scope to a selected power (generally 10x), then use the mil-dot for range, corrections, etc.

How true that is, I don't know - but I do know watching the mil-dot scope sales rise with the demand.

Your comments reflect my situation. I got the old scope from a buddy at a very good deal and was primarily getting it for the optical quality as well as the price. I had no idea how to use a MIL reticle and I know for a fact that the original owner didn't know either. It will be nice to have turrets and a reticle that match

Update:

So I mounted the new SS 3x15 on my rifle and went to the range yesterday for a sight in. I have been doing my homework on the Mil reticle and I wanted to sight in at 100 yds. My first shot was on paper but several inches to the left and a little high. I centered the reticle on the target and the first shot was almost exactly 2 mils left and about 1.5 mils high. I adjusted the turrets and my second shot was bulls eye. I then began hitting metal at 300-400 yards consistently and ran out of light before I could run out farther.
My takeaway with the Mil reticle is not to over complicate it. I downloaded the "Shooter" app and have changed the settings to MIL from MOA in the app so that data was quite helpful with making turret adjustments out past 200 yds. The SWFA scope itself seems very durable and tracks quite well. The glass isn't the greatest but is more than enough to serve the purpose I am using it for.

Thanks to those who made constructive comments.

I ran mine out to 1200 yards, and back, it tracked like a champ.

You may want a zero-stop kit for it, they are about $20-25 on e-bay. The guy posts on here, Sniper's Hide, and other shooting posts - most seem happy with his product.

I will check out the zero stop for sure... Are you referring to the washers that go under the turrets that make them "bottom out" and prevent over travel?

The stop AH64 is referring to are not washers but rather machines spacers that come in various heights to assimilate partial rotations of the turret. You zero your rig then dial down and count total turns to bottom it out. Dial back to zero and remove the turret cap and Insert the proper set of spacers and reinstall your turret cap at zero. It’s not exact but will get you close and you want to err on the low side so when trying to get back to zero quickly you will pass it by a tad and then go back up.

What he said 😎