Scope reticules....rifle march 2010

[redneckdan]

I just skimmed through Rifle march 2010 on line. In Walnut Hill by Terry Wieland; he says


In fact, the mil-dot system is used by teams of soldiers to direct each others’ fire by placing the crosshair on a known feature, and then counting off dots in any direction to the intended target – a particular window, or behind an otherwise nondescript rock.

Anyone ever heard this claim before? I'd heard the ranging and hold over uses mentioned before. Near as I can figure the original application was ranging for line of sight close artillery support.

[Doc Highwall]

More precise then giving verbal directions only. You can say put your crosshairs on that white rock, now look three mils right and one and a half mils down, see it now, as an example.

[redneckdan]

I understand the application, I've never heard that stated before as the reason. I figure the author didn't state the other applications in order to present a stronger argument against mil-dot reticules on hunting scopes....I've noticed Rifle can be kind of fudd-ish.

[Rocky Raab]

Well, "is used as" is not the same as "is the purpose of." I have a pair of boots that I "use as" a doorstop, for example. The rest of the article is probably more illustrative.

BTW, speaking of purpose, a "reticule" is a small evening purse for ladies.

[danski26]

Nohing ever taught to me like that when i was in. Not a bad idea i guess. Not sure how practicle it would be.

[1Shirt]

Long befor there were mil dots popularly on scopes, a lot of shooters were using other points of aim to hit due to wind, mirage, distance ect. Over 30 years ago, I recall spotting for a friend of mine on a p-dog that was well over 500 yds out and just beyond a fence. He was shooting a 243 with a 15x scope w/plain cross hairs. It took (if memory serves me right) five shots to get the dog, and on the 5th, I had him hold even with the top of a fence post and a smige to the right of the dog. There was maybe 10K of wind, and he dead centered the dog. Ky windage has been around since (I think) there was a Ky.
1Shirt!:coffee:

[gray wolf]

Th correct name for Mill dot is mill Radiant--Yes you can use it for anything you want--but the intended purpose was to range a target. It is a little compicated and the information can be found on the net. I will try to explain to the best of my ability. Follow along.
Each dot is 3.6 inches from center to center of the next dot at 100 yards. The cross hair is counted as a dot center. So if you have a 3.6" card at 100 yards it should fit between the center of two dots or the cross hair intersects and the center of the next dot. for this a dot up or down does not matter. Let me say it works on ten power only .
Ok The whole concept works around you knowing the size of a different object. A man at 72"
garage doors are mostly 84" I believe, a hub cap, a car door and so on.
A sniper would take study his environment and know the size of different objects.
He would also have to know the come ups for his scope --clicks up or down for different distance, Zero is at 100 yards.
So lets say there is a target a man 72" or a deer -top of back to belly lets say 20"
Ok we have identified the target and know it is 72" we then see how many dots it occupies in the scope. So we put the cross hair on the top of head and the bottom of his feet come to rest on the center of the third dot. so he is taking up three dots or as we said three Mills.
Now we know two things, the size of the target and how many mills he took up in the scope.
If the target is moving to much a stationary object of known size will also work and the procedure is the same. So we multiply 72 time 27.8 which is a constant and then divide it by the number of mills and that is the distance to the target.
72X27.8=2,001.6divided by the number of mills=667.2 yard to the target. lets prove it out.
We know that the 3.6 card at 100 yards took up 1 mill dot center to center.
So we take the known target size and Multiply it times 27.8----3.6X 27.8 it =100.8 divided by the one mill and it = 100.08 yards or 100 yards.
That was it's use for snipers --as a ranging aid. it may sound a little confusing at first but after a while it is not. You can get cheat cards that have been made up for you and it speeds things up a bit. Remember We did not have range finders available to every one--or did we even have them back in WW2 Korea or Nam?
Anyway that's what Mill Dots are about. Or at least what I was taught. Some good sniper scopes will break down the mills into tenths with small hash marks on the reticule in between the dots.

[felix]

Best to shoot one shot at something large enough to see the bullet impact. Hold the gun at the same sighting spot, and let the sighter person move the crosshairs to intersect the impact spot. Done deal. ... felix

[gray wolf]

Yes it may work and it will also more than likely scare off the game.
A sniper never would fire a spotting round.,and thats what it was used for. Also it was a question about mill dots.
But that will work and is often used to sight in a rifle if you are very steady and you have good comunication with the person turning the terrets.
OOPS to many up--OOPS to many down No,NO, to much to the left.


Hold the gun at the same sighting spot, and let the sighter person move the crosshairs to intersect the impact spot. Done deal. ... felix

Am I wrong or would you hold on the impact spot and move the cross hairs to the target ?

[felix]

What I said is correct. Don't have any idea what a sniper would do, just know what I would do if I were in some town "guarding" some location like in Baghdad. ... felix

[gray wolf]

[edit] .
God bless america
everyone does as they please

[Mike Venturino]

I have a young friend who went into Iraq as a Marine sniper in the invasion in '03. For what its worth, he explained his training to me just as Gray Wolf explained it above. He said AKs were the most popular "yardstick" for measuring by the mildots.

Mike V.

[Rocky Raab]

Well, you couldn't find a more commonly found object that that! Not there.