MIL/MOA...your opinions?

If you already learned the math for one or the other stick with that if not either is just as good as the other. I would add that having mil reticle with moa adjustment is pure lameness. Just make sure the reticle matches the turret and your in business. I learned both but it seems you dont even range so its unimportant. 

HI It is all preference MIL and MOA neither is better or worse , I used to use moa then I switched to MILS for every scope I own , it is just a bit easier for me to figure out ,



I at one time had a few scopes like hawkes with mismatched reticle / turrets , like raden said , They can be confusing to shoot targets at all different distances ,

I do use my reticles for holding over and for ranging from time to time ,so I also will only use a ffp scope ,

I do know many long distance shooters use SFP with MOA , not me I like MIL/FFP ,

Theeir reasoning is on hi power many ffp reticles become too thick , But it depends on the Scope it self , and design ,

To be honest I shoot long distances with my scopes dialed lower in power.

LOU

There is really no huge advantage to either one. 1/4 MOA is a bit more precise than 1/10MIL but both are great. I think it really boils down to what you learned on. Many here in the USA prefer MOA because we think in yards and inches. I used to use MOA and switched to MIL/MIL when I started shooting competitively because working in 10th's on the fly was faster and easier for me and 1/4MOA is a little bit too fine. I think the most important thing is that your reticle matches your adjustment. MIL/MIL or MOA/MOA, believe it or not there are some scopes that have a MOA turret and MIL reticle or the other way around...that's whacky!

Sorry, Rabbit summed it up perfectly while I was typing. I also agree and prefer FFP, don't notice the reticle of my scope being thick when dialed to 20x-27x and have 24MIL(275yds)of adjustment so there is no advantage to SFP for me... but that's another discussion!

Stoti

Here’s a good reference: https://www.shootingillustrated.com/articles/2011/2/18/mil-moa-or-inches/

Its honestly more applicable to long distance shooting and shooter preference. Being mil/mil or MOA/MOA helps if you’re calling in quick corrections, a la “come up a mil”, but most of the optics now are using the Christmas tree reticles the let the shooter simply hold over from the point of impact on the follow up shot. You can find more info on some websites like snipercentral and snipershide.

For airgun usage I’d say MOA adjustments are better because it’s a finer adjustment, and the reticle really doesn’t matter as much as you’re most likely using it for holdover, not trying to range a starling at 150 yards.

I prefer MIL, less turret rotations. That said, owning both seems to require some level of mental adjustment in switching between them. This isn't a deal breaker for me personally, but I can see how some prefer to go all in with one or the other.

Ghost, another reason I too prefer MIL! One revolution of my turret gets me out to 170yds, two revolutions, 250 yards. That's a definite plus! Did you sell that gun yet? I'm trying to talk my wife into letting me spend the money. I'm not liking my odds! LOL

Another thing I didn't see mentioned is that it's much easier if you and your shooting partner use the same system. When I started long range shooting with a centerfire, everyone and I mean everyone at our club used MIL, that was when/why I switched to MIL. If someone is making calls for MIL and you have an MOA scope, it won't do you much good. If everyone on the firing line is using MIL and you're using MOA, you're literally, on your own. 

Stoti

Good point. I can't imagine trying to do the math to convert MIL to MOA in my head in the fly lol

Do you use inches or centimetres to measure stuff around the house? I use both, depending on what I am measuring. The tape measure has both markings. As stated, be sure to stay on the same units when measuring and transfering measurements.

del

For SFP scopes, a combined MIL/MOA (turret/reticle) makes sense.

For FFP scopes, you want matching turret/reticle. The math is the same for both MIL and MOA. Only the factors are different.

MIL/MIL is good up to about 16x. After that your need 1/2 MIL or finer, so MOA makes more sense. The finer divisions of MOA/MOA is better for higher power scopes (24x).

Mil in ffp. easy to work out any corrections or actual distance as it's metric and just move a decimal . Ie zap a deer eat 1145 m and his rack span is 1 mil means his actual span is about 1.145m or 114.5 cm.. as I grew up with metric , km/h and right hand drive vehicles it's just easier for me to use it, Moa, it works it's just not as straight forward mathematically for me to use. All my old scopes were Moe 2fp, as that's all that was available, now everyone is spoilt for personal choice at entry pricetags

Mil in ffp. easy to work out any corrections or actual distance as it's metric and just move a decimal . Ie zap a deer eat 1145 m and his rack span is 1 mil means his actual span is about 1.145m or 114.5 cm.. ...

Click to expand...

I can do metric or imperial, as I am very familiar with both. The majority on this forum are probably more comfortable with imperial units but it does not really matter in such instances, especially if you are using a laser range finder and it is reading in yards.

For instance: Zap (laser) a deer at 1000yds and his rack span is 1 mil means his actual rack is 1yd.

The benefit of a milliradian is that the opposite side is 1/1000 of the adjacent side. That ratio can be used for either metric or imperial units.

One thing is that there are mil reticles with .2 mil hash lines in them, bracketing the .2 mil is .1 mil or 1 click so a 10th of mil is easily distinguished in the reticle for both holdover and holdoffs.

Most MOA reticle hashes are in 1 or 2 moa.

!0 mil turrets are easy, especially if there are 2 or 3 revolutions in them.

One thing is that there are mil reticles with .2 mil hash lines in them, bracketing the .2 mil is .1 mil or 1 click so a 10th of mil is easily distinguished in the reticle for both holdover and holdoffs.

Most MOA reticle hashes are in 1 or 2 moa.

!0 mil turrets are easy, especially if there are 2 or 3 revolutions in them.

Click to expand...

And I could say something similar about 1/2 MOA reticles:

One thing is that there are MOA reticles with 1/2 MOA hash lines in them, bracketing the 1/2 MOA is 1/4 MOA or 1 click so a 1/4 MOA is easily distinguished in the reticle for both holdover and holdoffs.

Visually, I'm able to split full MOA marks into 1/4ths or full mil-dots into 1/10ths, though the 1/4 MOA splits are easier and more precise.

0.2mil and 1/2 MOA reticles do exist, and are useful with sufficient magnification, but they are not very common.

I haven't seen a 1/2 moa reticle yet?? 

I have seen scopes with a moa reticle but with IPHY turrets, so 1.047" reticle with 1" turrets, not that big of a deal if not much dialing is done but the error compounds over a few revs. A mil is always a mil.

Plus .2 hash reticles are pretty common these days.

I'd rather use a tenth based system with FFP for most applications now even though I was raised with moa.

This is my personal experience below. Take it for what you will.

My first FFP scope was a Horus Predator 8-26x50 it had 1/4" turrets coupled with Horus grid 1" hashes in IPHY/inches per hundred yards. I won my first long range Field Course steel match with it holding over and off for the whole match. The reticle was a good one but the turrets didn't track worth a darn. Basically I was forced to use the reticle if I wanted to hit anything past 400Y.

Later on I bought a Bushnell HDMR with H59 reticle and it tracked great. Since I was so used to holding over I continued doing so. I found it much more "exacting" using those .2's in the reticle for holdovers and for holdoffs in the wind, especially with time constraints. I ended up winning the AZPRC seasons of 2011 and 2012 with that scope. AZ's best steel shooters were present and they all dialed.

Maybe if I had a 1/2 moa reticle I could have won??? .2's in mil certainly helped. With small steel a guy needs to know exactly where a click is in the reticle.