where to zero a mil dot scope

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cally88

cally88

Member
May 23, 2015
165
3
Oregon, United States
So I was thinking the other day on how I could push the range of my mil dot scope. I thought instead of zeroing on the middle intersection of the hairs that if I move the zero up a dot or two that would give me more "base" elevation adjustment. Well as you could expect I thought about taking this idea to the extreme....

What if someone wanted to maximize the amount of elevation in their scope. (this theory is without using the elevation adjustment knobs)

After consulting chair gun my configuration would never require my elevation to be more than 1 mil dot. so would you foresee any problems with Zeroing the scope on say the 5th or 6th top mil dot? this would give me an additional 10 or 11 dots to use as holdover. OK i know what your thinking, what about the decreased sight picture or the lack of mil dot windage. Well if the zero could include 1-2 mil dots of windage or a person could use the windage turret adjustment to accommodate.

Mostly just thinking out loud, what am I missing? 
 
Excellent points gentlemen.

My mueler apt has 5 stadia dots above the intersection. I was not sure if this would allow me enough room to shoot past 100y. I have looked deeper into chairgun and realize that it would be totally sufficient. I was trying to get a little creative since everytime i look through the scope i feel like i am only using half of it (the bottom half lol)

i feel like keeping the setup in a more"regular" zero might be best to eliminate any future confusion.
 
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"sscoyote"Just make sure you keep it on whatever power you zero it at, as every stadia besides the reticle axis will change subtension (and therefore zero) as magnification changes. I found this out the hard way many years ago.
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Also on a side note there is a formula that can be used to determine the distance between stadia marks at different magnifications.

I think the formula is:
Current magnification / calibration mag = conversion mil dot spacing

for instance mil dot spacing for 10x scope at 14x magnification would have mil dot spacing at 1.4 mils
 
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"cally88"
"30cal"Or you could solve that by getting a first focal plane FFP scope. That's what I have done. It's so nice not to have to worry about what mag setting I'm on.
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Agreed, but dang those are expensive! Guess the saying is true, buy once, cry once.

Or, you could get a fixed power scope and not worry what magnification you are on. I am looking hard at a SWFA 10x as I leave my variable on 10x almost all the time. Killer thing about that scope is by many reports the turrets have repeatable accuracy nearly second to none.
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I love the math with 2nd FP reticle subtensions. Cally, check your math on your calc. Reticle subtension is INVERSELY proportional to magnification, i.e. as power INCREASES reticle subtension DECREASES, and vice versa, so in your example above, at 14X the dot to dot spacing will be .7 mil.

One of the fun things I like to play with in the field/range sometimes is to run the ballistics program then calculate what power any particular reticle stadia point will be zeroed at any particular distance at any particular subtension. It's fun stuff imo, and teaches the shooter a lot about their scopes abilities.
 
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