New rifle, trying to understand mil-dot

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Papa_timmy13

New member
I just recently purchased a Savage 308 and it came with the Tasco 3x9x40 "true mil-dot" scope. I havent shot it yet but im trying to understand how the mil-dot reticle works. I've got the jist on range estamation but im a little questionable on hold over. As well my real question lies with which power(focus) should be on when making estimations? Example: a mil is equal to 3.44 MOA. and @ 100 yds 1 mil is about 3.5 inches, but if im zoomed in wouldnt that change?
 
Yes it changes depending on power setting unless your scope reticle size changes with magnification.

Read the scope's manual if you have it, it'll tell you what power the mil dots are accurate at. I would wager its 9x.
 
But with the scope wound out to 9, @ 100 yrds ill be counting ticks on a deers shoulder instead of seeing the whole chest, right?
 
Mil-dot is for range estimating on a known size target (like a man of 6ft tall), not hold over. That's why they expect you to adjust your clicks for the range and use the center cross hairs. Of course you will need to know bullet drop in inches for your caliber and bullet weight for that range. As an example - if the mil-dot tells you, you are at 300 yards and your scope is 1/4 moa per click and the bullet drop is 5 inches that would be 20 clicks up on your scope to get the correct point of aim if your scope is zeroed at 100 yards.

Jim
 
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A friend of mine did just that. He had a 4-12 power scope. Saw a deer at about 75 yards. The scope was set at 12 power. All he could see in the scope was brown hair. He had no idea if it was aimed at it’s hind end or front leg. I keep hunting rifle scopes set at the lowest power for quick close range shots. For long range shots you will probably have time to turn the power up a bit. Even at 100 yards, 3 or 4 power is more then enough magnification. As for Mil-dots, well they aren’t necessary for hunting in my opinion. Zero your scope at something like 150 yards, and you will be minute of deer from 25 yards out to 300 yards with most calibers.
 
The glass came with the gun, I'm intrigued on how it works. I don't have the cash for a different scope but i dont mind. I just really want to know.... and i gonna be changing formulas throughout the power ranges? this scope didnt come with turrets just the the ones under the caps. should i begin getting comfortable with them being off or "screw it" and kentucky windage will guide me till i figure out bullet drop @ long range?
 
Three things:

1) Jim243's calculation is incorrect above. 5 inches of bullet drop at 300 yards is roughly 1.75 MOA, or 7 clicks in that scenario (it's actually 5.25", but thats as close as you can get with .25 MOA clicks). Just for the sake of information.

2) Mildots can be used for holdover if you have a ballistic calculator or a drop chart that has the trajectory in mils instead of MOA. I use it all the time.

3) The problem with looking at deer at 9x at 100 yards is easily solved by zeroing your scope at 200 yards. That gives you a max point blank range of around 250 yards with most cartridges. That would mean you don't need any range estimation at ranges inside 250, and out past that the 9x magnification is perfectly useable. With very little practice anyone can learn to tell whether something is more or less than 250 yards away.
 
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When I got my mil-dot scope, I used all the ballistics calculators I could find. I did my math about 5 times before I decided which ones were actaully right. I took my gun to the range, set up my targets, got it sighted in at 100, so I moved to the 300 yard target. I took my first shot at the 300 and it wasnt even close to what any of the charts said. I ended up just shooting at different ranges to figure out where my gun hits. Im glad I did it that way, I still dont know what I did wrong with the formulas but I have done them time and time again and I still get the same answers.

Hint: for the 400 and 500 yard targets I put balloons (blown up to about the size of two of my fists) really close together so when I shot I could see how far off I was. Worked really nice compaired to trying to look through the spotting scope to see where I hit. Oh and WRITE IT DOWN! I put it on a piece of blank note card and tapes it to my stock so I always have it.
 
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