Are you mildot ranging?
Printed From: Kiwi Airgunners
Category: General
Forum Name: Flub's General Discussion
Forum Description: General discussion goes in here.
URL: www.kiwiairgunners.co.nz/forum_posts.asp?TID=731
Printed Date: 20 Apr 2025 at 1:20am
Software Version: Web Wiz Forums 10.14 - http://www.webwizforums.com
Topic: Are you mildot ranging?
Posted By: kruzaroad
Subject: Are you mildot ranging?
Date Posted: 08 Jan 2023 at 6:02am
|
How many ppl are using their mildot scopes for ranging? It seems to me that everyone is going for range finders these days. Is range finding off a scope a thing of the past for most? Its a simple formula 10x target size ÷ by mildots. Animal sizes can be found all over the Web. This is mildot not moa Espially useful on farms if you work out post, batten, pigtail and warratah size (waratah are wider on hole side than other size) it vertually turns the farm into measurable distances for shooting. Below is starling at 21cm high and my in pocket hare ranges for hunting. You do need to be able to rest gun at longer distances for measuring.  Are range finders that much more convenient for this propose? |
Replies:
Posted By: Billbobnz
Date Posted: 15 Jan 2023 at 3:45pm
| I did start using this method along time ago but ended up getting a cheap range finder off AliExpress |
Posted By: RangerPete
Date Posted: 18 May 2023 at 4:23pm
|
So what would a rabbits head be at 50m? Just the head, not including ears. ------------- Walk quietly, but carry a big stick. |
Posted By: kruzaroad
Date Posted: 18 May 2023 at 4:31pm
| Why range finder broken? |
Posted By: kruzaroad
Date Posted: 18 May 2023 at 4:32pm
| Or do you just want the head size which is about 8cm. The formula is above |
Posted By: kruzaroad
Date Posted: 18 May 2023 at 4:44pm
|
That's length, height of ears is about the same. A hare is 10cm wide, ears about the same. You'll have to judge if it's young or fully mature as there will be a size difference and make slight adjustments on where you hold which may be just above or below your aim point and is usually not much at 50m. I just guess that. Seems to work. Ears standing up are more reliable as height is not affected by angle, where as a turned head is. |
Posted By: RangerPete
Date Posted: 19 May 2023 at 3:10am
|
Just about all the rabbit shooting I do is at night with a thermal scope, which makes it very difficult to judge distance. With a pcp range is important and pellets drop quickly from 50m and out. I’ve been trying to work out a ranting method using the size of the rabbits head against the reticle, which has dots on it. Magnification of the scope/reticle obviously needs to be kept constant for it to work. ------------- Walk quietly, but carry a big stick. |
Posted By: kruzaroad
Date Posted: 19 May 2023 at 4:11am
|
Set to 10x mag for mildot ranging. My advice would be to work out the mildot distance then set out a 8cm target at various distances (I did every 5m for hares) and scope them up and write down actual mildots as you see them. (I used an actual hares head on a post for this) I also divided the distance between two mildots mentally into quarters but also 1/3, 2/3 for quick recognition. Any thing less than those I personally find to small to recognise. The further out your ranging the more critical the right reading is. I shoot out to 60m so not to far. Its also why it's a good idea to shoot the actual distances to see what the drop is in reality compared to paper. I would like to get a differnt scope with a busier retical for this reason. On the tx I had it pretty sussed out. I haven't spent as much time as I should have on the sig sorting this out. I use the mildots to get me on range then fine tune from experiance with the gun. This is for mildot not moa though there is a way to calculate for moa to turn onto mdot measurement. I have been donated a range finder by billbob and will try it out properly at some stage. As of this far I've only used it for ranging off markers prior to going shooting at night and birds in trees (which weren't on areas I can shoot) I can see the range finder coming into its own for birds as it will give me the actual strait line distance. For possums I've just held 4 mildots under on average for the sig. With the 1322 it's usually hold over, it doesn't have a mildot retical and pellets drops very fast. |
Posted By: kruzaroad
Date Posted: 19 May 2023 at 4:23am
|
Sorry its turn your mdot into moa and its for scopes with mildot retical and moa turrets. Which happens to be my hawk scope. I don't dial distamce on my scope so have never tried it but heres the video https://youtu.be/URsKv-deAm4 |
Posted By: RangerPete
Date Posted: 19 May 2023 at 6:38am
|
I’ve never “dialed” turrets, never had a scope that could do that. I’ve always just worked out what the drops were at each distance, made my self a little cheat sheet, estimated (or used a range finder) and held over. Always worked for me, dropped countless mynas and squirrels. But now shooting mostly at night for rabbits, my range finder dosent work in the dark. (We it does, but I cant see jack 😂). So learning how to range with mill dots in the thermal will be very useful 👍🏻 ------------- Walk quietly, but carry a big stick. |
Posted By: Pauly5
Date Posted: 19 May 2023 at 5:11pm
|
What thermal unit you using Pete? I have used an LE 032 add on with my digital NV. It works well because I can see the ranging IR splash. In theory if you know where in your picture it is ranging, you could use something like that. You can see it here in this video, its the camo coloured thing on the side of my scope. https://youtu.be/gPSjH-mmQUg
|
Posted By: RangerPete
Date Posted: 20 May 2023 at 3:16am
|
Hi Paul, It’s a Pulsar Thermion something something 50. Amazing unit. I know there is a version 2 now out, but I think this one is still amazing. There are different reticles I can choose from, the one I use seems to act like a FFP. I keep it at 16x mag (picture in picture) and try to use the dots as a range finder against the size of a rabbits head. I’m not sure if the dots are spaced exactly the same as mil dots, but I’m trying to find out about “the principle” of ranging with mil dots and see if I can adapt it to this thermal. I do have another “normal” optical scope which has little lines (not dots) and I believe they are correctly space for mil dots. I’ll play around with that one too and see if I can make sence of it all 😂 ------------- Walk quietly, but carry a big stick. |
Posted By: kruzaroad
Date Posted: 20 May 2023 at 3:45am
|
Try this for mdot ranging explanation https://www.targettamers.com/rifle-scopes/mil-dot-explained/ A search under "ranging using mildot" will bring up heaps of articals.and videos also moa as well. Your scope Manuel should tell you what your using if not try a.search using your the full name and Make of your scope with the word retical after it. Should bring up details I found two that had 50 in the name but wasn't sure what yours was. Also one discontinued one as well. There is a nice gun, scope, and torch and mount for the price of those scopes! |
Posted By: RangerPete
Date Posted: 20 May 2023 at 3:43pm
|
I agree 😂 the price of those thermal scopes is crazy! Unfortunately it’s not mine, it belongs to my boss, he just lets me use it, lucky me 😉 ------------- Walk quietly, but carry a big stick. |
Posted By: kruzaroad
Date Posted: 20 May 2023 at 3:45pm
| Good boss to have. |
Posted By: RangerPete
Date Posted: 21 May 2023 at 3:09pm
|
He’s a top guy 👍🏻 And he loves his FX’s too! He’s got about 6 impacts 😂😂😂 ------------- Walk quietly, but carry a big stick. |
Posted By: kruzaroad
Date Posted: 21 May 2023 at 3:27pm
|
I should imagine the pcps are pretty addictive. I've always hoped there would be more tech talk about pcps on this site. With the amount of adjustment that can be done to them, sleeve liners, differnt pellets at differnt psi, differnt charging actions, scopes that would be awsome on pcp but to much for springers etc it would be great to read what ppl are up too |
Posted By: Pauly5
Date Posted: 22 May 2023 at 4:24am
|
Yea pcp's get talked about a lot, and the FX ones have so many add ons and tuning capabilities that get discussed. I've got an impact mk2, and I got it because I was fascinated with the impact when it first came out. The ability to tune it without opening it up appealed too. I had tuned other guns, but got sick of degassing, adjusting, testing etc. Springers are great though, and really are the backbone of airgunning I reckon.
|
Posted By: kruzaroad
Date Posted: 22 May 2023 at 4:50am
|
Really you have to degas some models! Never realised that. That would suck. Sounds totally impractical. So was that just the older models or is still something to still be aware of in the newer models. I vaguely rember seeing something about being able to tension barrel liners/sleeves as well? I tend to flick articals pcp as I don't own one. Is that correct as well. It makes scence that if you could you'd want a way to tune your barrel. Well something better than an o ring on the barrel anyway. |
Posted By: Pauly5
Date Posted: 22 May 2023 at 7:07am
|
FX have really pioneered that over the last few years. Barrel liners allowing you to change calibres, but because everything moves, tensioning the barrel became important. Ironically People are now machining std barrels to fit. The impact has three external adjustment points, going from major to minor. All adjustable without degassing the gun. 1. regulator 2. hammer tension (course and fine adjustments) 3. valve return adjustment I have retro fitted regulators to different pcp's, fx cyclone, AA S510, AA EV2, and if they need adjusting, the gun needs to be degassed, so unless you have a custom reg tester, you only know the pressure when you regass the gun. With the impact you can do everything right down to harmonic tuning with the valve adjuster externally. |
Posted By: kruzaroad
Date Posted: 22 May 2023 at 7:14am
|
Your not helping me keep a springer shooter lol. Is degassing removing the bottle as well? If so wouldn't a tap on bottle and firing the loaded gas solve that?. Or is it that to adjust you need to get into the gun by removing stuff. |
Posted By: RangerPete
Date Posted: 22 May 2023 at 3:34pm
|
Different manufacturers have different systems. Some you need to degas/depressurize - let all the pressure out of the cylinder/bottle before you can make internal adjustments to the gun. But others you can just unscrew the cylinder/bottle from the gun and they will seal and hold their pressure until you screw them back in again. All depends on the make and model. ------------- Walk quietly, but carry a big stick. |