Make your Monday better education time everyone! Mil (MRAD) or MOA, what is the difference, which is better? Buying a new optic? Trying to figure out how to use your optic? Thinking of shooting long-range? Should you go with MRAD or MOA? Do you the difference between the two and how to use them? Here is a good explanation of MOA and MRAD we wrote to help everyone out. First is Minute of Angle: A minuet of angle is an angular measurement based on the principle of a circle. The reason for using a circle to base this on is that the bullets flight is that of an arc from the barrel to the point of impact, which is similar to the arch shape of a measured section of a circle. The first thing we need to remember is that in a circle you will have the mathematical consent of Pi, What does this have to do with MOA? MOA is the angular measurement of a circle and a minute of angle is 1/60 of 1 degree of a circle. This is important to know because if we take the idea of a throwing a football which to have an arching trajectory, when you have to throw the football farther you increase the height of the angle on the path of the arc to resist gravity. Just like when shooting from 100 yards to 200 yards, you increase from 1 MOA to 2 MOA and so on. The reason most shoot zero their optic at 100 yards is because 1 MOA at 100 yards comes from the ratio measurement of the distance to the angle at 100 yards, which is equal to 1 inch roughly. Second is Mil, Milrad, Mrad, ect: The true name of this unit of measurement is Milliradian. As with a Minuet of Angle a Milliradian is nothing more than a circular measurement of an angle, which again allows us to use the mathematical constant of Pi and apply it to the arc of a bullet. The Milliradian has a mark difference from MOA, as MRAD is the measurement of a radian angle. The determination of a radian angle comes from taking the radius of a circle and applying that distance to the arc of the circle which then becomes the radian angle. The solution to a trigonometric Milliradian is determined to be one, one thousandths (1/1000) of one radian angle. Our optics though use the principle of a circle divided into six equal lateral triangles, with each angle of the triangle being 60 degrees (Seeing some similarity with the minute of angle?). Then during the time between World War 1 and World War 2 what is now the NATO countries came to agreement that they would use the mathematical equation of Mrad or Mil equaling out to 1/6400 to replace degrees. Because of this divergence of math one trigonometric Milliradian equals about 1 mil to 3.43774677 MOA and NATOs adopted Milliradian equal 1 mil to 3.375 MOA. Now with applying this back to rifle shooting we use this measurement to adjust our point of impact to correct for distance and to obtain the distance to our intended target. As with the football imagery above, if we need to throw the ball farther with have to increase the angle ie 1 MRAD to 2MRAD. So, as we can see a Minute of Angle and a Milliradian is the same thing, MOA and Mrad are both angler measurements of a circle, but our solution to angle is determined through different mathematical equations. MOA is a more precise measurement, but when using MOA for obtain a range to a target, the mathematic formula carries more complex values in our math to find the range, (The formula is the distance to target in yards = known height of the target in inches multiplied by 95.5 then divided by image measurement on the reticle) as we have an absence of a known radian. Now, MRAD is much more of a coarse measurement as the numeral values used are large, but its use to range our targets is much quicker when applying the formula, target height in inches multiplied by 27.77 divided by measured vertical mills. I hope this helps everyone out there. I hope this helps everyone here and clears up a lot of the misnomers of the difference between these two reticle’s, As we have shown that there is only some minor differences between the two forms of measurement and at the end of the day these reticle’s do the do the same thing, and when choosing a reticle now it comes down to what you fill comfortable using and what your plan for application of usage. If you have any questions please feel free to contact Broadside of a Barn Precision, either through Facebook or through email at Broadsideprecision@gmail (please use the subject “Optics Question”) As always we thank everyone for their support of our team here at Broadside.
Posted on: Mon, 26 Jan 2015 14:53:41 +0000