Jamie Young
New member
I say again What Does MOA mean? and what is a click Technically speaking?
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What is MOA and what is a Click Technically
- Thread starter Jamie Young
- Start date
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Jeff, CA
Guest
MOA stands for "minute of angle". That's redundant. A minute is a measure of an angle, just like a degree is. There are 360 degrees in a circle, and there are 60 minutes in a degree (so, obviously, a minute is 1/60 of a degree - a very small angle).
Now - imagine a very skinny cone starting at the muzzle of the gun and extending downrange. The angle at the point of this cone is one minute. The farther you go downrange, the bigger the diameter of the cone gets. At 100 yards, the diameter is approximately one inch (1.047"). So, assuming a steady hold, if your gun can keep all its shots within this skinny cone, and therefore within the 1" circle at 100 yards, you can say it shoots within 1 MOA (all of its impacts, that is. "MOA" doesn't take trajectory into account). The same thing applies to red dot sights, but with the cone starting at your eye. A 3-minute dot, for example, will appear approximately the same size as a 3" circle at 100 yards, 6" at 200, and so on.
A "click" is just one increment of adjustment in a sight or a scope. When you adjust your sights, you're actually changing the angle between the line of sight and the centerline of the bore. You're stuck with whatever increment the manufacturer chose when they designed the sight. It might be, for example, one-half MOA. That means you're changing the angle between line-of-sight and center-of-bore by 1/2 MOA, or 1/120 degree with each increment. Assuming you keep aiming at the same spot, the bullet's point of impact will move by that same amount (approximately 1/2" at 100 yards).
[This message has been edited by Jeff, CA (edited May 13, 2000).]
Now - imagine a very skinny cone starting at the muzzle of the gun and extending downrange. The angle at the point of this cone is one minute. The farther you go downrange, the bigger the diameter of the cone gets. At 100 yards, the diameter is approximately one inch (1.047"). So, assuming a steady hold, if your gun can keep all its shots within this skinny cone, and therefore within the 1" circle at 100 yards, you can say it shoots within 1 MOA (all of its impacts, that is. "MOA" doesn't take trajectory into account). The same thing applies to red dot sights, but with the cone starting at your eye. A 3-minute dot, for example, will appear approximately the same size as a 3" circle at 100 yards, 6" at 200, and so on.
A "click" is just one increment of adjustment in a sight or a scope. When you adjust your sights, you're actually changing the angle between the line of sight and the centerline of the bore. You're stuck with whatever increment the manufacturer chose when they designed the sight. It might be, for example, one-half MOA. That means you're changing the angle between line-of-sight and center-of-bore by 1/2 MOA, or 1/120 degree with each increment. Assuming you keep aiming at the same spot, the bullet's point of impact will move by that same amount (approximately 1/2" at 100 yards).
[This message has been edited by Jeff, CA (edited May 13, 2000).]
) click 
Jamie Young
New member
Yeah that is part of my question!! When they say something is "3Clicks down that way" what does that mean? Kilometers?
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KM are often refereed to as "clicks" Why? I really don't know, they have been called that long before I went into the Corps and will be called that after I am gone. The clicks on your scope depend on how your sight is built, normally that are in 1/2, 1/3, 1/4, or 1/8 or .86 MOAs. So for each click (in a perfect world) you move the bullet approx. either 1/2, 1/3, 1/4, 1/8 or.86th of an inch for every 100 yards the target is away from the sight.
A little off topic but very similar and is often asked.
Some of the military and "military want to be" sights also have reticules (mil-dot sight) that are in mils (there are some produced by the former Soviets and their allies are in DC). A mil is an angle, there are 6400 in a complete circle (the Russian DC system uses an angle that there are 6000 in a complete circle). The mil was originally a unit of measurement used by artillerymen, but later adopted by almost the entire military for instances were degrees are not accurate enough. The reason that the mil was incorporated into military sniper sights (and most optical direct fire weapons sights) are two fold, the first being the Marine officers that help develop the sight were artillery officers that were on a B-billet at the WTBn, Quantico, VA (the Bn runs the scout-sniper school). More important a mil subtends approximately 1 unit of measurement (works with yards, feet, meters, inches, etc.) for every thousand units of measure away from the measuring instrument. So if you know the size of an object, you can determine range by plugging in the mils measured into the mil relation formula or W=RxM. (W=width, height, etc. R= range divided by 1000, M equals mils measured) You can also work the formula backwards, i.e. you know how far the target is, you can determine the space between mils and use that for target lead and hold over so you don't have to "click-in your come-ups." now these are approximate measurements, because the mil relation formula is obtaining an angular measurement, this is close to but not the exact the same as the strait line distance between the two measured points on the curve. In artillery FDC it is normally to divide by 1.0186 to convert the outside angle into a strait line distance when subtending an angle.
A little off topic but very similar and is often asked.
Some of the military and "military want to be" sights also have reticules (mil-dot sight) that are in mils (there are some produced by the former Soviets and their allies are in DC). A mil is an angle, there are 6400 in a complete circle (the Russian DC system uses an angle that there are 6000 in a complete circle). The mil was originally a unit of measurement used by artillerymen, but later adopted by almost the entire military for instances were degrees are not accurate enough. The reason that the mil was incorporated into military sniper sights (and most optical direct fire weapons sights) are two fold, the first being the Marine officers that help develop the sight were artillery officers that were on a B-billet at the WTBn, Quantico, VA (the Bn runs the scout-sniper school). More important a mil subtends approximately 1 unit of measurement (works with yards, feet, meters, inches, etc.) for every thousand units of measure away from the measuring instrument. So if you know the size of an object, you can determine range by plugging in the mils measured into the mil relation formula or W=RxM. (W=width, height, etc. R= range divided by 1000, M equals mils measured) You can also work the formula backwards, i.e. you know how far the target is, you can determine the space between mils and use that for target lead and hold over so you don't have to "click-in your come-ups." now these are approximate measurements, because the mil relation formula is obtaining an angular measurement, this is close to but not the exact the same as the strait line distance between the two measured points on the curve. In artillery FDC it is normally to divide by 1.0186 to convert the outside angle into a strait line distance when subtending an angle.