OK, for clarity, we’ll call them scopes. As in telescopic sights.
First, why a scope? Well, I assume that you noticed, when you were zeroing your AR iron sights, that it was hard to get a really good sight picture beyond a hundred yards – I am assuming eyesight beyond 29 years, of course. So, first, magnification is so you can clearly see distant targets. But if you want to engage those targets, you need more than just magnification. You need something in that view so that your shot can be aimed. You need crosshairs.
Right, Emily, gravity strikes again. So, we need to have some hash marks for holdover (or under), to be able to move the crosshairs up and down, or maybe both! Here’s what it might look like:
But what do those hashmarks mean?
We’re going to do a tiny bit of math here, but don’t worry. I’ll speak slowly and distinctly.
Imagine standing in a field and seeing a huge circle around you.
Right! But each of those 360 degrees can be broken down into 60 Minutes.
So each degree of a circle is a degree of angle which is broken into 60 Minutes of Angle. And there you have our measuring scale – a Minute Of Angle – MOA.
There now, that wasn’t so hard, was it?
If you go out 100 yards, that little MOA measures at 1.047”. At the distance we will be first shooting, that .047” can be disregarded. So, at 100 yards one MOA is about an inch.
Now we can use those hashmarks to adjust our fire. BUT FIRST, we are going to zero our scope to the rifle! Stay tuned for more amazing rifle hacks!
KatNap Fever! 