I would recommend Bryan Litz's book "Applied Ballistics" to anyone seeking a better understanding of this subject. He deals with both theory and practical use in layman's terms, without leaving out anything important. ....
I eagerly endorse that recommendation. Started reading it and had a tough time putting it down to answer the call for dinner.
Crowsnest:
Barrelnut's initial post for this thread (07-23-2014, 08:20 AM) is a good starting point.
It's easy to get confused when trying to make the adjustment from milliradian to using MOA because, IMO, when you think of MOA as inches your brain wants to wander back to the "inches" relationship you learned using Mil-Dots. The technique that worked for me was to print my dope sheet in MOA, spend a day at the range at a variety of distances and practice thinking "MOA = 1 inch times distance to target divided by 100" and staring at my turrets to memorize that "the long lines are 1 MOA, the short lines are .25 MOA. (My scope is .25 MOA clicks) To make the math less complicated, I forgot about the zeros in distance to target (that way I didn't have to do the division) so 1 MOA at one hundred yards worked out to 1x1=1, 1 MOA at two hundred yards 1x2=2, and (progressively) 1 MOA at a thousand yards 1x10 = 10.
I shoot 1000 yard competition and I understand the one MOA=1.047 inches - but the half inch that I lose in the calculation over my maximum range does not lay heavily on my mind. All factors considered, I can't pray hard enough to hold a .5 inch group at 1000 yards anyway.
So what's the MOA advantage? One Mil equals 3.6 inches at 100 yards. At
one level of power (depending on who made the scope - the reference scope power level varies from one scope maker to another) your scope will remain relatively true to that standard. But when you change viewing power you have to make a relative adjustment in how you calculate Mils. Using MOA, 1 MOA equals 1 MOA at 100 yards, regardless of what power your scope is set at. Mils work well for ranging. So if you don't have a range finder that type of reticle may be useful. But target ranges typically use fixed distance targets and in the field my range finder tells me what I need to know about how long a shot I'm faced with and my dope sheet (prepared at the range and adjusted to reflect real world results rather than just a computer calculation) tells me the rest.
