My Gun Culture

Guns, Shooting Tips, Ammo, Concealed Carry & Gear. Who's bringing the chips?

  • Store
  • Cart
  • Guns
    • Handguns
    • Rifles
    • Shotguns
  • Ammo
  • Shooting Gear
    • Optics, Sights and Lasers
    • Holsters
    • Accessories
    • Reloading
  • Shooting Tips
    • Competitive Shooting
    • Concealed Carry
    • General Tips
    • Gun Maintenance & Customization
    • Gun Safety
    • Home Defense
    • Reloading
  • News
    • 2nd Amendment
    • Business
    • Competition
    • Crime
    • Politics
    • NRA Annual Meeting
    • SHOT Show
  • Opinion
  • Reviews
    • Ammunition Reviews
    • Book Reviews
    • Clothing Bling Reviews
    • Gun Accessories Reviews
    • Gun Reviews
    • Holster Reviews
    • Optics and Sights Reviews
    • Reloading Equipment Reviews
  • Half-Cocked
  • Contact
You are here: Home / Shooting Tips / General Tips / Mil-Dot Made Easy

Mil-Dot Made Easy

June 3, 2015 By Tom McHale Leave a Comment

This Steiner optic offers adjustments in .1 milliradian increments. What's a milliradian? Read on...

This Steiner T5Xi optic offers adjustments in .1 milliradian increments. What’s a milliradian? Read on…

The Mil-Dot system is exceptionally versatile – if you know how to use it. If you drive a submarine, you can use them to figure out how far away you are from a ship that needs torpedoing. If you shoot a rifle, you can use mil-dot to hold the correct amount over a distant target. Or, if you have the system on an optic like a spotting scope, rifle scope or binoculars, you can use it to accurately figure out how far away something (or someone) is.

There’s a lot of fancy math behind the whole mil-dot thing, but we’re going to ignore most of that here and explain the concept, and more importantly, how you can use it, in plain English. There won’t even be a quiz at the end, I promise.

The Math

The biggest problem with mil-dots is that most people try to explain them using big words like tangent, subtension, and fractions. We’ll try to avoid that here. I’m going to break my promise about not talking about math, but only for a second, so hold your nose and read on. I’ll make it painless, really.

Mil-dot is an abbreviation for “milliradian” and “dot”, which is from the English word meaning, dot. A milliradian is 1/1000th of a radian. What’s a radian? It’s a measure of distance traveled around a circle. So if you start eating the crust of a whole double-cheese and sausage pizza and work your way exactly half way around, you’ll have eaten 3.14159 radians of pizza crust. That’s half a circle, or three slices, as I like mine cut. It doesn’t matter how big the pizza is because radians measure the amount of travel around a circle of any size. Radians basically measure an angle. If you think of the same amount of munched pizza crust in terms of degrees, those 3.14159 radians are the same as 180 degrees.

Recognize that 3.14159 number? Yep, that’s Pi. Amazing coincidence that I used both Pi and pizza in this example, isn’t it? If you remember junior high math, Pi helps measure circles. Half the diameter of a circle, times two, times Pi, equals the distance all the way around. So, there are 6.28 radians in any circle. Since there are 1000 milliradians in a radian, a circle is comprised of 6,280 milliradians.

Just because!

Here’s where people who really hate math make things a bit confusing. The U.S. Army says that there are 6,400 milliradians in a circle, not 6,280. Just because. It’s like arguing with your little brother. You can end debate by saying “Because!” with lots of conviction and volume. You know the Army has lot’s of conviction and even more volume. The Russians certainly aren’t going to agree with the U.S. Army, so they say there are 6,000 mils in a circle. Again, just because. We won’t get into a debate here of whether “because” from the Americans wins over “because” from the Russians. So, for this reason of “just because” from here on out we’re going to go with the theory that there are 6,400 mils (milliradians) in a circle. Just because.

What exactly is a milliradian?

So what’s a milliradian? It’s a pretty small angle in practical terms. If you stand at the shooting bench and hold your arms out in a really, really small angle of exactly one milliradian and looked between your outstretched hands, you would only be able to see 3.6 inches of your target if it was 100 yards away. Since angles work proportionally, if you looked at something 200 yards away, you would see 7.2 inches. If you looked at an object 1,000 yards away, you would see 36 inches of your target. See how that works? The angle of a milliradian translates to 1 yard at 1,000 yards range or just 3.6 inches at 100 yards range.

A "mil" is just an angle really.

A “mil” is just an angle really.

Read the rest at GunsAmerica!

Filed Under: General Tips, Shooting Tips Tagged With: gunsamerica, Hawke Optics, mil-dot, mils, moa, optics, rifle scope, scopes, steiner

About Tom McHale

Tom is the primary author of the Insanely Practical Guides series of how-to books. He believes that shooting can be safe and fun, and works hard to make the shooting world easy to understand. If you want to learn about the world of guns, shooting and the American way, check out some of his books. Have a laugh or two. Life is too short for boring "how to" books.

You can find print and ebook versions at Amazon. For more information, check out InsanelyPracticalGuides.com

Feel free to visit Tom at his website, MyGunCulture.com. It's a half-cocked but right on target look at the world of shooting and all things related. If you want to learn with a laugh about guns, shooting products, personal defense, competition, industry news and the occasional Second Amendment issue, visit him there.

Got something to say? Cancel reply

IMPROVE YOUR SHOOTING SKILLS RIGHT NOW!

Get our FREE eBook, A Fistful of Shooting Tips!

Your weekly subscription will get reviews, tips and a few laughs delivered right to your inbox.

Once a week and no spam ever.

Get Your FREE eBook: A Fistful of Shooting Tips

* indicates required

Legal disclosures about our review policies.


IMPROVE YOUR SHOOTING SKILLS RIGHT NOW!

A Fistful of Shooting TipsDownload A Fistful of Shooting Tips and get FREE reviews, tips and a few laughs delivered right to your inbox! Once a week and NO SPAM - ever!

Get Your FREE eBook: A Fistful of Shooting Tips


Follow My Gun Culture

  • Facebook
  • Google+
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • Pinterest
  • Tumblr
  • Twitter

Check out our books

  • The Practical Guide to the United States Constitution

    The Practical Guide to the United States Constitution

    $14.99
    Buy Now
  • The Practical Guide to Reloading Ammunition

    The Practical Guide to Reloading Ammunition

    $12.99
    Buy Now
  • The Practical Guide to Gun Holsters for Concealed Carry

    The Practical Guide to Gun Holsters for Concealed Carry

    $12.95
    Buy Now
  • The Practical Guide to Guns and Shooting, Handgun Edition

    The Practical Guide to Guns and Shooting, Handgun Edition

    $12.99
    Buy Now
  • Sale! Hot off the press! The Rookie's Guide to the Springfield Armory XD-S

    The Rookie’s Guide to the Springfield Armory XD-S

    $12.97 $4.99
    Add to cart

Related Products

More Related Products

Dale Fricke Holsters Dale Fricke Seraphim Rmr Holster
$94.99
Sticky Holsters Inside-the-Waistband Holster (LARGE)
$29.99
Sticky Holsters Extra Travel Mount Adhestive Strips 3 pack
$6.99
Crimson Trace Round Butt Red Lasergrip For S&W J-Frame - LG-105
$189.99
Dale Fricke Holsters Dale Fricke Archangel Holsters
$94.99

Most Popular

  • 8 Ways To Spot Someone Carrying A Concealed Gun
    8 Ways To Spot Someone Carrying A Concealed Gun
  • The Seven Deadly Sins of Handgun Shooting: Inappropriate Racking
    The Seven Deadly Sins of Handgun Shooting: Inappropriate Racking
  • The 5 Best Pocket Carry Handguns
    The 5 Best Pocket Carry Handguns
  • A Spiffy Upgrade for the Ruger 10/22
    A Spiffy Upgrade for the Ruger 10/22
  • 6 Ways to Carry a Gun Concealed (And the Holsters You Need)
    6 Ways to Carry a Gun Concealed (And the Holsters You Need)

Looking for a product you’ve seen here?

About My Gun Culture

Hello, my name is Tom McHale. I'm the creator and primary author of the Practical Guides series of how-to books.

I also write lots of articles for various shooting related magazines and websites. You'll find my work at Shooting Illustrated, Concealed Carry Magazine, Tactical Retailer Magazine, Beretta USA, Guns Magazine, OutdoorHub, GunsAmerica, American Handgunner Magazine, Bearing Arms, AmmoLand, The National Shooting Sports Foundation, Grand View Outdoors, and Shooting Sports Retailer Magazine.

I help explain complicated things in a fun and easy-to-understand way. I believe that things don't have to be so complicated, although I suppose excessive techno-jargon keeps lots of well-intentioned lawyers in business.

If you want to learn about the world of guns, shooting and the American way, check out some of my books. Have a laugh or two.

Amazon Author Profile

LinkedIn

Google

Archives

Shooting Tips

  • Competitive Shooting
  • Concealed Carry
  • General Tips
  • Gun Maintenance & Customization
  • Gun Safety
  • Home Defense
  • Reloading

Guns

  • Handguns
  • Rifles
  • Shotguns

Gear

  • Holsters
  • Optics, Sights and Lasers
  • Reloading
  • Accessories

News

  • 2nd Amendment
  • Business
  • Crime
  • Politics
  • NRA Annual Meeting
  • SHOT Show

Reviews

  • Ammunition Reviews
  • Book Reviews
  • Clothing Bling Reviews
  • Gun Accessories Reviews
  • Gun Reviews
  • Holster Reviews
  • Optics and Sights Reviews
  • Reloading Equipment Reviews

Privacy Policy and Legal Disclosures | Copyright © 2019 My Gun Culture · Log in