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Reaper Tip: Mil or No Mil

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The scope you choose for your rifle comes down to personal preference. There really is no right or wrong. One choice you’ll need to make is whether to use an MOA MIL-dot scope or a MIL/MIL one. I like this brief explanation by Reaper Tip at The Loadout Room:

One of the most common questions I get asked is, “What scope should I use?” It seems that the world of precision shooting is shifting from the MOA MIL-dot scope to the MIL/MIL scope, a scope that has MIL adjustments with a matching MIL reticle. For those shooters who are used to the traditional MOA-adjustment scope, it may seem like a “new world” of math and re-training, when in fact, it’s not.

Let’s think about a typical shooting situation. You start off by sighting in your rifle at a distance of 400 yards, applying all the fundamentals of marksmanship to the best of your ability. Your bullet impacts 6″ low. Being that you are 400 yards away, you would divide 6 by 4 and get the answer 1.5. You then come up on the elevation approximately 1.5 MOA or 3 clicks on a ½ MOA scope. The next shot you fire hits your target. Not too bad for an MOA scope; you simply do a little math.

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Now let’s take a look at our MIL/MIL scope with 0.1 MIL adjustments on the same 400 yard line. You fire a shot and you see that the round impacts .4 MILs low. Instead of doing any math in your head, you simply reach up and dial up 4 clicks (0.4). The next shot you fire is dead on. No math involved, what you see is what you get. This can be applied at any distance. If you see that the bullet impacts 0.7 MILs low at a given distance, you simply dial in 7 clicks on your 0.1 MIL elevation turret.

What scope is best for you?

This is, in my opinion, a personal shooter preference. Having said that, let’s take a look at the benefits of both, and apply them to a shooting scenario.

Let’s say you’re a part of a sniper team deployed to a hostile environment. You and your spotter see a target of opportunity and are given permission to engage from your sniper position. Your laser range finder (LRF) was destroyed during your infil, so you resort to doing some basic MIL-dot range estimation based on his height.

You send your first shot downrange and your spotter sees the bullet impact. He quickly calls out to you, “.6 MILs high, .4 MILs right.” Without doing any math as you would with the MOA to convert it to inches, you simply dial down the elevation 6 clicks and hold for the wind .4 left. In such cases where distances are unknown, you do not have a LRF at your disposal, or your MIL-dot range estimation is off due to various environmental factors such as mirage or angle to target, the MIL/MIL would be best for you.

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E.J. Smith - Your Survival Guy

Preparing your investments and family for when disaster strikes.
E.J. Smith is the Founder of YourSurvivalGuy.com, Managing Director at Richard C. Young & Co., Ltd., a Managing Editor of Richardcyoung.com, and Editor-in-Chief of Youngresearch.com. E.J. graduated from Babson College in Wellesley, Massachusetts, with a B.S. in finance and investments. In 1995, E.J. began his investment career at Fidelity Investments in Boston before joining Richard C. Young & Co., Ltd. in 1998. E.J. has trained at Sig Sauer Academy in Epping, NH, where he completed course-work in Practical and Defensive Handgun, Conceal Carry Pistol, Shotguns, Precision Scope Rifle and Kidnapping Prevention. E.J. plays a Yamaha Recording Custom drum set with Zilldjian cymbals. His first drum set was a 5-piece Slingerland with Zilldjians. He grew-up worshiping Neil Peart (RIP) of the band Rush, and loves the song Tom Sawyer—the name of his family’s boat, a Grady-White Canyon 306. He grew up in Mattapoisett, MA, an idyllic small town on the water near Cape Cod. He spends time in Newport, RI and Bartlett, NH—both as far away from Wall Street as one could mentally get. The Newport office is on a quiet, tree lined street not far from the harbor and the log cabin in Bartlett, NH, the “Live Free or Die” state, sits on the edge of the White Mountain National Forest. He enjoys spending time in Key West and Paris. Please get in touch with E.J. at ejsmith@youngresearch.com. Sign up here to receive all the best content from Richardcyoung.com each week.