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Milli Radians vs MILS


TreblePlink

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Hi folks, been shooting pistol for a while, and now learning rifle ...

According to Wikipedia, the Angular Mil is not always 1 MRAD or 1 / 1000 of a radian, but sometimes rounded, such as the 6400 per circle in NATO countries. (Ibid)

The exact MRAD unit is 2 PI * 1000 per circle.

As far as scope elevation adjustments and reticule Mil-Dots are concerned, do most scope manufacturers honor the exact 6283 unit or the fudged unit?

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Just yanking your chain. Mostly because your question stumped me.

From Merriam-Webster:

reticule
noun ret·i·cule \ˈre-ti-ˌkyül\
Definition of RETICULE
1 : reticle
2 : a woman's drawstring bag used especially as a carryall
reticle
noun ret·i·cle \ˈre-ti-kəl\
Definition of RETICLE
: a scale on transparent material (as in an optical instrument) used especially for measuring or aiming

It looks like the spelling is interchangeable...

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The problem I have are all the various references to Mil-Dots, MILS, MRADS, - as if the unit is interchangeable. Certainly it's close, but are all these units in the US really Milli Radians, or the Nato version? I would just like to avoid rounding errors where I can - got enough other variables going ...

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6400 is for artillery, 99.9% of the scopes are 6283 mils, the reason artillery uses 6400 is because it's divisible by 8, and close enough kills just fine with artillery, with precision rifles they all use 6283, only a old a Leupold used 6400.

Someone will come along, or yall will read on the Internet how much POI (point of impact) .1mrad is at 100 whatever, DO NOT convert angular measurements into hard values, 1 Mil is 1 mil, and 1 moa is 1 moa, use the reticle as your ruler, and don't ever buy a scope with a Mil reticle and MOA knobs

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I read this paper - more than once. A lot of lightbulbs went off in my head.

MILS and MOA - Mil-Dot

Also check out Brian Litz on the interwebs. Super cool dude. If you follow his works you will quickly realize no scope comes "correct". In one of his videos he explains how to calibrate a scope to your junk. Then once calibrated you shoot your "system".

Learning the above paid me back in spades.

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I take back my first statement. It should be "I chose MOA because people make the whole thing more complicated than it is".

The difference between the two is the name and the number of units used to measure a given space at a given distance.

To break this down into much more just confuses it.

When you threw out that 6,400 and 6,283 or whatever they were, I am going out on a limb here, the difference between the two numbers is probably well beyond the accuracy capability of a rifle and only necessary to calculate something like landing a space vehicle on a specific crater on Uranus. It would be (please correct my math, I'm winging it here) less than 2% difference. At 1,000 yards, that would increase a 5" group to 5.1".

Gentlemen, I am certain you will correct me if that is incorrect.

wg

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Bored at work, so I calculated the theoretical difference for a scope based on the different definitions for "mill". I calculated the drop based on the actual trig function. See attached table.post-11119-0-29346100-1426026319_thumb.p

Edited by gdboytyler
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Way too much being read into this. You buy a mil scope then you run your data in mils.

And scopes do come correct. You should be checking the tracking of a new scope. If it is off you should know but I have had plenty that are right on.

Edited by Rob01
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  • 7 months later...

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