Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Long Range Hunting Do many here use MILS?

I am saving for a nice scope to help me extend my range. Trying to graduate from charts and CDS Leupolds to the next step.

Hate to ask the "question" which is asked 3X per week of What Scope. I am torn.

Think I could pony up $1000 which is a popular budget limit for Working Guys. Made the mistake of reading Sniper's Hide for a few weeks. How all these guys are saying "I'm in for 2" on new Nightforce scopes at $2400 each is beyond me.

I've read ScenarShooters reviews of the upcoming Bushnell LRHS scope in 3-12. Seems the scope was pretty much tailored to his specs along w George. There has to be a reason I'm sure. Seen enough pics and targets to know he isn't a poseur. Think many others have asked why he does MILS and meters. Not sure his answer.

I've been doing MOA for a while. I think I get it. Have not had too many hang ups. Very hard for me to consider anything MILS. Spoke to a friend who is a combat vet w confirmed kills behind a bolt gun. We did math, examples, diagrams etc. Still confusing.

Seems all Snipers Hide guys make it simple. Shoot. See splash. Measure from POA to POI, adjust same and send 2nd. That's great if you are splashing on steel. Or Hadj doesn't move and you can see bullet impact.

But if I'm spotting for a bud. He whiffs on an 'lope at 628. I guess he misread the wind by a 12" miss. I can tell him in 5 seconds of math "Hold 2 minutes left"

Am I missing an easy Short Cut with MILS? If I am truing my zero or checking data at 300 yards(or meters) and I'm off 5" what do you adjust(you can't see bullet holes thru scope to measure in MILS in this example)

I'd guess even the cheapest of software or aps offer come ups in both MOA and MILS. Not too much headache there. Just way wierd to me. Lots of scopes offered with MILS of some sort. MOA seems more limited in offerings.

300 yards is 10800 inches.

Calculator in radian mode: arctan(5/10800) = .000463, so you're needing right between .4 and .5 milliradians.

One Mil is 3.6" per 100 yards, or 10.8" (rounds to 11) at 300 yards.

If you miss by 5" at 300 yards, adjust half a mil, and send again.

Herein lies the beauty of Mils. You don't think in inches. You measure in mils.

In the above example, your friend didn't miss by a guess of 12", he missed by 1.9 Mils, which is what you as the spotter measured with the reticle in your scope or spotting scope.

You then tell your buddy the correction, in mils. He dials in or holds off the proper amount of mils for the next shot.

When everyone is on the same system, there are no math conversions needed. This not only helps to eliminate mathematical errors, but it makes the whole process a lot faster in the field.

Not really adding anything to this thread, but I often wonder the same thing as above. I have little debt, pretty decent job and I could push the toy fund a bit to maybe cough up 2 grand for a scope, but these guys who buy multiples or that can even think about spending 3 and now 4 grand on a scope is beyond me. Much less having several scopes in that category.

There's talk about the new scope/brand that bought Premier over at the Hide, 4200 retail (ouch).

As long as you are set up to use one or the other there is no difference. To spot correctly your spotter needs a reticle with the unit of measure you are shooting that way he can give you an instant call on the splash or dirt so you can get another round in the air if needed under the same conditions.

The only thing that speeds the call up is measuring it in a reticle you are spotting with.

With that said, at tactical matches you see more Mil. set ups.

In theory I had a hard time converting to MILs. My buddy sent me a MIL scope to try. In practice, its a breeze.

Here's a good thread.

http://forum.snipershide.com/snipers-hide-rifle-scopes/229906-understanding-mils.html

I use and like both MOA and MIL scopes. They are simply 2 different systems of measuring angles- one is in degrees and the other in radians. The only things that distinguish the two, in my mind, are that MOA scopes are typically designed with finer click increments, and the MIL system works neatly in divisions of 10, like the metric system.

Both work very well, as long as some thought went into scope and reticle design.

Spot On!

In fairness its exactly the same if you had a reticule and turrets graduated in MOA..The point is you all need to be working the same units (whether Mil or MOA) and forget using linear corrections. The beauty is that you don't have to worry about exact distances re the second shot as the system sort of automatically takes that into account when you read off the correction..

Yep. A full-on MOA system would do the same thing, it's just that Mils are currently more available. It seems like we're seeing more and more MOA systems becoming available, which is great!

The big thing for me is not having to guess. No more "hold a half prairie dog high".

Without looking it up, who knows precisely what angle a radian is?

to how many significant figures, or will symbols work?

Definition, not equivalent in degrees.

Can't remember exactly but its derived from the arc of a circle where the arc is the same length as the radius.

If you really want to confuse people, google how many different "Mils" systems are in use..

180/PI

Sorry, you're still involving degrees.

survey habit.

other than saying "ratio of arc length to radius", I always think in degrees.

edit: 1 radian is where the arc length equals the radius.

Pete is pretty much there.

In the military, we always took a Mil as the angle subtended by 1m at 1000m but I am not sure how that fits in with the scientific definition..

Half a pd high might be more accurate than 4 inches or 1 moa or .25 mil etc... due to the fact they vary in size...

Actually I dont' care for mils much. I don't think in mils. All you have to do to run mils is think of everything in mils and its no different than MOA etc...

Jeff