MOA < MIL

Buddy and I were out shooting 22's this weekend and we both have SWFA scopes on them. Mine is MIL, his is MOA. We were stretching them out and getting our drops using StrelokPro and I am now convinced that MIL is so much easier to use!

For instance. Drop at 175:

Me. 6.1 mil or 61 clicks.
Him. 20.2 moa or 99 clicks ????

It was making my head hurt trying to figure out many clicks to make adjustments in MOA. I think I could easily get used to either but MIL just seems so much simpler.

For that task, yes.

Clicks don't matter on either one of them...don't count clicks you'll get lost. I've yet to see a turret that wasn't marked with MOA/MIL numbers...even if you can't zero the turret just add the numbers as needed. Yours you turn to 6.1 and his you turn to 20.2.

They both have their place and I don't see one as better than the other they are just two different systems.

Example...move your POI on a MIL scope a quarter of an inch.

Since 1 mil = 3.44 MOA, then, yes, 1 mil is greater than 1 moa.

I get that MOA is more precise due to finer adjustments but I suck so bad I don't know if I'll ever need to make those smaller adjustments

Serious question, other than being more precise, what would be the advantage of MOA over MIL?

Precise and it's the American system....and it's the way most non-operators/non-TAF folks talk. (I'm really sort of kind of joking about this part)

We could line 100 guys up and I could miss a target off to the right....70% + are going to give you an American unit of measure as to how much you missed...that can easily be converted in everyone's head to MOA because it's the system we were taught in kindergarden.

For the record, I have and use both. Sorry for the semi serious answer.

Somewhere a fireman's eye is twitching.

I’m pretty TAF so that makes sense

If your talking 100 average joe off the street americans they will likely give you and estimated distance off in feet or inches, neither of which is MOA.

I have both and they both serve fine for me. For my purpose the precision of mil is good enough and I prefer mil.

MOA is finer, so it has its' place in what I call static shooting. Like Benchrest and F-Class. One target distance, often multiple rounds on the same target, often plenty of time ti do it. If I wanted to go play benchrest with Judd, I'd do as the Romans do, and probably show up with an 1/8 MOA scope if that's what Judd told me I should use.

Mil, while yes is more coarse, it is easier to manage in what I call Dynamic shooting. Variable target diatances, variable wind speeds, variable wind angles. The wind, in tenths is far easier to multiply and divide with the Mil system. The elevation corrections, while more coarse are faster to get to, and often easy to remember. Hunting is dynamic shooting in my book. Some MOA scopes have ran out of travel before the shooter got to engage the farthest target on my range. Never has a Mil scope done that at my place. MOA, and especially 1/8 MOA scopes can have a really tough time in dynamic shooting. At my summer long range match, this can become evident. One example is the stage called "Chaos" 200, 400, 600, 400, 200, 600, repeat for 12 rounds, you have 90 seconds.

If Judd is calling corrections while looking through a Mil or MOA scope, he is an idiot. You miss with me spotting for you and I'm going to give you your corrections in whatever system your scope is speaking, Mils or MOA. Inches are 100% out the window when properly making corrections.

I'm in the mil camp. Yes it's more broad of an adjustment but my brain works a lot better with tenths than quarters / eighths etc. Now if you don't ever dial and just shoot flat or kentucky windage then it doesn't really matter which one.

If you are OK with learning a new measurement system, I highly recommend MIL for long-distance shooting, mostly for the reasons laid out above. As for MOA being more "precise", this is technically true, but the practical difference is minute. a "click" on a mil scope is usually .1 mil, or .36 inches at 100yds. one "click on an MOA is 1/4 MOA on most scopes, which is .261 inches at 100yds. So you are talking about a .1 inch difference (or 1/10th of a "shooter" MOA). I am not a good enough shooter to consistently take advantage of that difference, so the "fine-ness" of the adjustment is effectively NOT an upside for me.

The number of clicks has ZERO to do with either unit of measurement.

Turrets can be had in either unit of measurement with significantly varying units of measurement per click.

The numbers on the turrets are there for a reason - to help with adjustment rather than counting clicks.

Scopes can be had with 1 MIL per click or 0.1 MIL per click. There is 10x the difference in those two measurements per click even with the same unit of measurement.

MOA is the same and can be had in small or large units per click.

Add in differences in reticle designs, SFP vs. FFP, and the "size" of the click and reticle needs to fit the task.

Shooting F-Class at 1,000 is one task that benefits from small increments of fine adjustment, while battlefield minute of man typically has much coarser adjustments and coarser reticles.

Some specialized reticles are matched to one specific ammo for military applications and are neither MIL nor MOA, and remove the need to make any adjustment to a turret.

One size of click is not necessarily "better" than the other, but one might be better suited to a particular task. They are just different tools for different tasks.

preach!