• Watch Out for Scammers!

    We've now added a color code for all accounts. Orange accounts are new members, Blue are full members, and Green are Supporters. If you get a message about a sale from an orange account, make sure you pay attention before sending any money!

Rifle Scopes Another mil-dot history question

sscoyote

Sergeant
Full Member
Minuteman
Jan 1, 2005
425
3
Just trying to understand the MD changes that have occurred thru the years. According to Michael Haugen's articles in Tactical Shooter magazine, the USA MD mil was 3.375 MOA, and dot diameter was .22 of that particular mil. subtension. The oblong USMC mil-dot system was 3.438 MOA and dot length was 0.25 of that mil.

Currently MOST manufacturers adopted the USA round dot system and changed it to .2 mil to help with interpolating the base ten system. And the USMC subtension was used for the mil. measurement.

Does this sound correct to u guys? It's important that i get this "historical" info correct.
 
Re: Another mil-dot history question

Only one scope was ever built where the distance between mil marks was 3.375, which was the original Leupold M3A.

All others have been based on true milliradians, which are 3.438 MOA apart.
 
Re: Another mil-dot history question

Thread Hijack:

On the football dots, I don't remember ever seeing any statement of the "thin" dimension. They're a quarter-mil long, but are they .20 mil or something less "tall" on the horizontal crosshair?

I like the idea of having two different fractions built into the dot...but the scope I chose has tiny hash-marks instead of dots.
 
Re: Another mil-dot history question

The width of the USMC dots is not defined, it's not constant. The dots are applied 'wet' to the wire, only the length is controlled.