How to use a mil/mil scope-reticle, turrets and proper usage

[Formidilosus]

I have gotten a bunch of requests to write up a "how to" for using mil reticle scoots. In this case the SWFA Milquad reticle. It is the 6x42mm SS with MQ reticle in the pictures, however the process and use is the same as long as you have a scope who's reticle matches the turret adjustments- mil/mil or MOA/MOA. Mil/mil has some advantages, but the system works regardless.



The set up-



Tikka T3 SL in 223
SWFA SS 6x42mm MQ
Pic base and rings
Blackhills 5.56mm 77gr SMKs


Also a Leupold Mark4 12-40x60mm spotter with H32 reticle. This is not necessary but really helpful.


The target after bore sighting. Dot is 1.5". Target is at 100 yards.


Understand that the reticle is broken down into .5 mils. Every tick mark is .5 mil, with a bigger tick at each whole mil. The turret adjusts in .1 mil increments. Don't get freaked out by mils- it's just a measuring tape. We will not be thinking in inches at all and instead will use the reticle as a ruler.

Then because it's a known rifle I fire one round. If it were a new or unknown rifle I would go ahead and get a ten (10) round group out as long as it's on paper.

First round.





It's easy to see through the scope, but it doesn't show when taking a picture through it so I placed a 1/2" dot over the hole so it shows up.



Now place the reticle back on the target and "read" the ruler.



It's literally telling you what to adjust. Just break the reticle down visually into tenths.

In this case- "down 1.7 and right 1.5" mils.



If you move the reticle up and bisect the bullet hole and aiming point like this it's even easier to see-

 

[Formidilosus]

The easiest is to have a spotter with a mil reticle in it. So you adjust "down 1.7 and right 1.5" mils. Fire another shot- Closer look-

 

[Formidilosus]

Now fire nine more to confirm-









From the reticle and target, dial- left .1mil to center the group. Loosen turret screws, lift off, spin and align with the "0" indicator mark.





Zeroing is done. No mental gymnastics, no fuss, no conversions, no weirdness. Think only in mils. Break it down into tenths visually and do not try to convert it to something else. See where the impact is with the reticle, adjust what it says, and done. Firing a statistically significant amount of rounds to see the true center of the group is important as you can easily be off .2 mil with a "1 moa all day" long rifle if you "zero" off of 3 shot groups.

 

[Formidilosus]

Now how do you take a zeroed rifle and use those turrets and that reticle?



You need a dope card or drop card that tells you how much to adjust for a given range.

We used to have to hang targets at every 100 yard line and walk our rounds into the target, note the required adjustments, and move to the next. With the advent of accurate ballistic solvers you no longer need to do that. You can use the ballistic program to "true" your data. If you know the real BC of the bullet you can true the velocity, or if you know the real muzzle velocity you can true the BC for an unknown bullet. In general chronographs are the weakest link and I would default to velocity calibration.

It's pretty easy to find accurate BC's for most bullets by selecting the bullets with "Litz" next to them in the ballistic program as those have been tested and verified by Applied Ballistics and Bryan Litz. While it is improving, manufacturers love to inflate their BC numbers.


The best way to true is to shoot a target as close to transonic speed as possible- as close to 1,340fps as you can. If you can't get that far, then do it as far as possible. If you input all the variables correctly scope height, BC, range, weather, etc. the outcome will be VERY accurate data out to the range that you trued.

For a target I use a piece of steel with a waterline across the middle (this one is set at 600). The goal is to get your rounds splitting the line. This allows you to true your velocity by manipulating the app.






You need a good app. There are quite a few good ones, but in this case I use Shooter on an IPhone. It's simple and provides good data. Regardless of what app you use, you follow the same general steps.

First build the rifle profile. Measure and input accurate data with regards to sigh height. I've named the gun, input the barrel twist, sight height, and set everything to mils, and 1/10th graduations-




Then I go to "Ammo" hit the "+" sign, and a screen pops up. Select "from bullet library" as I know the bullet I am using will be in there.





A "bullet diameter" screen pop up. Select your bullet diameter- for this one ".224".

 

[Formidilosus]

Scroll down to "Sierra" and "77gr Matchking (Litz). Select it and choose "G7" as it's a more accurate reflection of the bullet.



Next this screen pops up. You can change the name or leave it. Put in your actual muzzle velocity or what you guess it to be. You'll notice most everything was populated but the MZ Velocity, zero range and environmental data (atmospherics). I used a weather meter to get actual, but if you don't have one get as close as you can to the actual. I also set the zero range for "100 yards".

Now I know what this ammo will do as I see about 300k rounds of it shot a year, but I threw a random number of "3,000fps" in there to show the process.





Save it, and then select the bullet from the menu, and put In your target range "600" and hit "calculate" in the upper right hand corner and a drop chart is produced-





Ignore everything but the "path mils" column. At 600 it says I need "up- 3.5mil" in elevation to hit. Dial it into the scope-





Make a wind call (while I was hanging the target I checked the wind. 5-6mph full value).

 

[Formidilosus]

I am not concerned with getting a prefect wind call, just getting it on target or close enough that I can see the bullet trace and splash. Also remove parallax if able. Even a little bit can screw your data up.




I decide to hold right edge of target and fire a round. It strikes just off the left edge and low. Using the reticle I see that I need to come "up .5" and hold a total of "right .7" mils.

Dial "up .5 and hold right .7" mils.



The result is a hit on the water line. I fire four more rounds to confirm-




I can see in the reticle that I am ".1 mil" low from splitting the waterline. Final elevation needs to be "4.1 mils" to center.

Go in the upper right hand of the screen and hit the box with the arrow in it. This pops up-

 

[Formidilosus]

Select "velocity calibration".

This screen will appear. It will let you input multiple ranges and the actual adjustments needed to hit center. I used one range so put "600" for distance and "4.1" for the adjusted.




Go to the bottom and hit "calculate". The "trued" muzzle velocity will appear. Then hit "use MV". The system backward calculates the true muzzle velocity and changes your settings. Now the drop card reflects what you actually needed to hit- i.e. It has been "trued".



You can do this without the shortcut by manually changing the MV until the projected drop matches your actual.



After this we're done. The gun is zeroed and the ballistic program is trued out to 600 yards. It will now give you good data for all ranges 600 and in. I didn't hear, but you want to true if possible as close to transonic as you can. It gives you the best data. In all this remember- garbage in, garbage out. Input good data.












P.S. You'll note that there are no extra holes, no "whoopsies", no "flyers", no nonsense. Solid rifles, solid ammo, and solid optics with matching reticle and turrets is the easiest and simplest to use system that you can buy.

 

[Loper]

Amazing! Thank you for taking the time to take the images/screenshots and write all of this! I've been struggling to wrap my head around the MIL system for several weeks and have read dozens of posts and articles on the web and watched several YouTube videos. This post has finally helped me understand MILs and how to use the MIL reticle. Thanks again!

 

[Brontosaurus]

This is extremely helpful! Thank you!

 

[Rob5589]

Excellent write up.

 

[TxxAgg]

Great job!

 

[aftriathlete]

From the reticle and target, dial- left .1mil to center the group. Loosen turret screws, lift off, spin and align with the "0" indicator mark.

Can the same thing be done with the elevation turret cap on the 3-9? It’s not the same cap, just has the single center Allen screw on top. If this was possible all along I’m gonna feel like a dope.

 

[Cynoscion]

Yessir. Loosen the screw on top, slip it back to zero and tighten it up. Your turret is now zeroed and you’re ready to go.

 

[id_jon]

Make sure to loosen it enough that you can lift it off the splines, and make sure it doesn't click when you spin it to zero.

 

[Steve300xcw]

Can the same thing be done with the elevation turret cap on the 3-9? It’s not the same cap, just has the single center Allen screw on top. If this was possible all along I’m gonna feel like a dope.

Yup same thing.

 

[Smenning]

Great write up, thanks!

 

[ZackP]

This is fantastic.

There are no stupid questions, in regards to sight height, where are you getting the most accurate/best measurement?

 

[aftriathlete]

Well I feel like a dope. But better late than never. I’ve been rolling around hunting with this thing just hoping to remember where my zero is.

 

[Dr. Zeus]

Download strelok pro app amd get access to a chrono.

Sent from my SM-S911U using Tapatalk

 

[Marbles]

@Ryan Avery or @fngTony

This should be a sticky.