Re: Hollands ART reticle
Most Snipers will "float" the reticle from the top of the head to the belt line, they are not "ranging" to the degree people who are not active in that profession are doing. Lasers, map, range cards, are more prevalent so again, ranging is sort of a last resort. Certainly to the degree civilians and tactical competitors will do it. Like a hunter they don't have an absolute number on the size of the target to begin with, so they are using an approximation already. Is the guy 6', 5'10", or do you just say, 36" for a torso and go... if you are bearing in on the math to get it right you're not doing your job.
But clearly it is taught center to center, as Lindy as stated. As well, as I discussed understanding that when practicing if you read the reticle as being .5 and you see the reverse answer is .55 or .6 you know you made a mistake by not incorporating the edges.
In an urban hide, you designate reference points for range. You are not able to dictate the time the enemy appears or from where, so you have to be able to "know" how far away "intersection" T3 is from your position, suspect walks through intersection, he is 300 yards away... Out in the mountains you have the contour lines on a map to tell you how far things are for reference.
Are there exceptions to the rules, of course, there are a lot of shooters with mil based scopes in the military and only so much real training to go around. So there is always an exception, that however should not dictate the rules.
But we clearly explain that each person must understand the reticle they are using and what it subtends so they can successfully mil range a target. If you are coming up short in your mil reading you're probably reading off the edge. Not to mention we use the reticle (a ruler) in everything else we do from leads, to holds to corrections, it is important to understand when the spotter asks for a .2 a mil correction what that means, or when I say the target is 4.3 mils from the sign where that is.
If I was a hunter I would be using a laser more than my reticle, or at least able to use my eye inside 300 yards. If you are serious about it, you know what effects the laser and how to compensate for it. I have no issue tapping an object well off the target that would give me a better return so I have an idea of what range I am looking at. We also go into much more detail in how to use a laser, beyond point and shoot.
There is a lot of finesse that never gets spoke about so many will try to fill in the blanks, or compensate for common errors, never realizing it is covered in detail and practiced over and over.