Nightforce Mil-C vs Mil-R reticle for hunting?

[PaulB84]

Which do you prefer? The Mil-C seems busy to me, but reading some comparisons, people seem to prefer it for the easier precision of smaller wind holds. I assume I would be zeroed for 100, dialing for elevation and using reticle for wind.

In the ATACR 4-16, what do you prefer for a Western hunting situation?

 

[alexnelon]

I much prefer the Mil-R center illuminated. It's still not a great hunting reticle, but it's good enough.

 

[PaulB84]

Yeah. Using a random chart and bullet, a 7mm at 500 yards has like 14.5" of drift in a 10mph crosswind. So if instead of holding .8 mil I held 1, I'd be off by what, 3.5" or so? On an elk size target that seems not to matter much, and 500 would be a very long shot for me.

Also splitting .5 and 1 to get .75 doesn't seem impossible....?

 

[alexnelon]

Yeah. Using a random chart and bullet, a 7mm at 500 yards has like 14.5" of drift in a 10mph crosswind. So if instead of holding .8 mil I held 1, I'd be off by what, 3.5" or so? On an elk size target that seems not to matter much, and 500 would be a very long shot for me.

It's easy to get to the point where you know where .8 is relative to the hashes.

Using the reticle is the easy part. You're much more likely to misread the wind by 2-4 mph than to use the wrong hash. Holding a little more wind than you think you need is usually the right thing to do anyway.

 

[PaulB84]

Copy that.

Is the 4-16x50 Mil-R not available in FFP?? Just noticed all these are SFP...

 

[alexnelon]

The 4-16x42 f1 is ffp, the 4-16x50 is sfp. There's also a 4-20x50 f1

 

[PaulB84]

Awesome thank you

 

[Kurts86]

I prefer the Mil-C as a target reticle but the Mil-R is going to be marginally more visible and is a better fit for an ATACR 4-16 F1 for hunting. Neither are particularly visible but illumination is required with these for many hunting situations.

The Mil-C is almost perfect for me as I like a floating center dot and 0.2 wind holds given a choice.

 

[PaulB84]

I ended up ordering a SWFA 3-15x42 today finally. While I really prefer illumination for hunting situations, a lot of people are telling me it's not necessary. I have plenty of rifles that need glass, so if this doesn't work in a western hunting scenario I'm sure I can find a home for it. At the price I felt compelled to give it an honest shake. I have four other swfa Scopes and love them all. Felt dumb to pay 4x the price for a very similar product, just for illumination.

If the Tenmile FFP came in a standard mil dot or square style vs the Xmas tree I would have gone that way. There really is no perfect optic. (Which is obnoxious, since multiple manufacturers are so close. The SWFA could be illuminated, the trijicon could have more reticle choices, etc)