Basic mrad scope use overview for beginers

Mrad stands for milliradians.

FOR UNDERSTANDING MRAD

A circle is divided into 6.2832 sections, each called a “ radian“
Each “radian“ is 57.3°

To measure the width in a “radian“ we use " milliradians" (mil for short)
There are 1000 "milliradians" (mil) in a single “radian“
This means there are 6283 "milliradens" (mil) in a full circle.

As one "milliradian" (mil) is quite big , it gets broken into ten smaller sections for more precise adjustment of your scope.

These smallest sections equate to one "click" when adjusting your scope turret dial.
Ten clicks equal 1 "milliradian" (mil)

Summary:
6 sections to a circle.
1000 divisions in each section.
Each 1000th division has 10 smaller divisions.
Each one of the 10 smaller divisions is equal to one click on the rifle scope.
One click = 1/10th of a milliradian (mil)
10 clicks = 1 milliradian (mil)
   1 milliradian (mil) = 1 mildot on the scope reticle.

UNDERSTAND HOW IT WORKS WITH YOUR SCOPE.

Imagine a big flat horizontal circle around your scope. ( Any distance but say 10m or you could draw it on a piece of paper)
The center of the circle is the center of the crosshairs.
Now divide that into 6 equal sections from the center. You now have your “radians“
You will see that it looks like a round pizza, cut into 6 pieces.
You should also notice that each piece starts off very small at the center and gets wider at the crust.
This means the further away from the center of the cross hairs the outside of circle is the is the more mildots it will take to cover the length of the outside edge.
This is because you are working with angles.
This means that a small adjustment gets bigger the further away it gets from scope. ( Think of cutting a slice of round pizza thicker or thinner, but the knife is a pellet or bullet and the other side where it mets the crust is the bullseye)
That is why the scope uses "milliradian" (mil) and clicks (0.1 mil) to make the angles smaller for when you adjust.

Examples:
1 mildot adjustment on the scope shooting at distance of:
1000m = 1 meter movement from the bullseye.
100m = 10cm movement from the bulls.
    50m =   5cm movement from the bulls.

One click (0.1) adjustment is equal to
5mm at 50m
10mm at 100m
20mm at 200m etc.

This is the same principle vertically.

Summary
Adjusting the scope will make the projectile move a bigger distance from the bullseye at distances than it does closer in, at the same setting.
Using metric system for distance will allow for easier adjustment calculation on mrad scope.
The principal applies to both horizontal and vertical adjustment.

WINDAGE AND DROP

This will be affected by the projectile shape and weight, the power it is launched with, the weather conditions.
I cant give specific details for this.
But using the above principles allows you to make adjustments.

DROP/RISE
A scope when you look through it gives you a strait line of sight.
A projectile when it leaves the barrel starts to drop strait away.
Its going so fast that this turns into a long slow arc into the ground.
If the scope and barrel were dead level with each other you would never be able to hit a target as the scope would never point where the projectile flys.
But they arnt!
The scope and gun are so designed that when mounted they actually slightly face each other.
This means that the strait line of sight of the scope will now cross the projectile path. TWICE.
The first time soon after the projectile leaves the barrel and the second time further away as the projectile is arcing towards the ground steeper. ( If you draw an arc on a piece of paper and then draw strait line though it so it passes through two points of the arc you get an exaggerated idea of how the angle and line of sight work)
This now means the projectile will come from under the line of sight, go over the line of sight and fall back through the line of sight .
You have two points where the center of the cross hairs are zeroed. One near, one far.
For the rest of the arc you have hold under , and hold over.
Hold under is after the projectile has crossed over the near zero and is now higher than the line of sight, so you need to drop the cross hairs lower to compansate for it.
Hold over is the projectile is below the line of sight so you need to lift the cross hairs to compansate for it.

USING MILDOTS TO COMPANSATE AND DIAL

There are apps and equations for this that need your specific data from your rifle and projectile.
But you can also do it buy shooting targets at varing distance.
Zero your scope for the distance you want to zero at .
Find out what magnification your scope is set for true readings. 10x magnification is standard for a lot of scopes. Set up targets ( on a wind free day or area) at 5m spacings to max distance you want to shoot(air rifles ,as this is an air rifle forum)
and aiming with the cross hairs zeroed to the center of the bullseye proceed to shoot the targets. 5 shots per target.
This should give you a good group.
For the next step be at 10x magnification or what ever your scope is factory set to for accurate mildot measurements.
You can then look through the scope and count how many mildots you are under or over and write it down. You will then need to hold the opposite amount to correct.

Example: Your 3.5 mildots under the bullseye, then you need to hold 3.5 mildots over the bulls eye to hit the bullseye. 3.5 over,hold 3.5 under

You can also measure the distance from the bullseye to the center of the group you shot and work out how many mildots you need to adjust for that distance.
Both ways can be translated to dail up or down on the turrets as you know the relationship between mildots on retical and turret dailing from the first section.
If you go for dailing fine tune on targets as it will give you more accurate resaults.

WINDAGE

You will need to learn to reconise wind speed and how far it pushes your projectile over certain distances.
Shoot targets in the wind and at differnt angles and distance in the wind.
As well as pushing your projectile across, some wind angles will push your projectiles up and down.
The apps usually will adjust for this if you enter the wind speed. There are equations to work it out. There are wind scale charts that give wind speed indication by plant movement. (Beauford scale)
Its the same principle as for using mildots for drop except using your horizontal mildot markings instead of vertical.
Once you know how much the projectile moves you can do the windage correction by visually holding the correct amount of mildots into the wind or dial the windage.

Both windage and drop will very with projectile shape and speed so youll need to work it out for your set up

RANGE FINDING WITH MILDOTS

You can get distance to a target using mildots.... If you know the target size.
But you need to know the size!

This done by
1: knowing what size your target is.
2: being set to the correct magnification for "bracketing" the target
3: adjusting the scope till target is crisp and clear.

The correct magnification is usually 10x
but whatever the factory recommendation is for your scope is the right one.

Example. An adult European brown hare in New Zealand has a 10cm head length as well as 10cm ears from tip to base.
So if one mildot = 10cm at 100m then the head or ears should be 2 mildots.
50m 4mildots etc .

This equation will change with differnt magnifications, so you need to look up the equation and apply it to your situation.

This a basic overview of mrad scope usability. It can be used with imperial but im not familiar with that system or the conversions.

However 1mrad (mil) =
3.6 inches at 100 yards

One click (1/10)of a mrad is
0.36 inches at 100 yards
0.18 inches at 50 yards

So it's all the same principles but based off how imperial measurements work.

If this sounds like something you might like to explore there are much more detailed explanations and the formulas for working them out on the web.
Happy shooting.












Edited by kruzaroad - 05 Jan 2025 at 2:49pm

Thats all it is.
Couldn't be bothered going into detail. Is for newbies really, try and encouraging them to understand the scope more. Most members here are way past the info on it.

Edited by kruzaroad - 05 Jan 2025 at 1:52pm