Got back into shooting original WW2 guns for a bit, just because. Apparently I really hate my collar bone.
I rememebr one of the things I had wanted to do in the past was to sort of 'map' the German #1 reticle in my original 1929 dated (by seriel number) Zeiss Zielsechs. Most of the shooting back then was more art than science/math but I wanted to see if I could somewhat mix the two a bit better as you receive basically zero additional information from the optic unlike how you do now with subtended reticles.
The scope I'm trying this with is a fixed 6x; so we don't have to worry about mag power versus reticle size. Secondly, there is no windage adjustment; you set the windage mechanically on the side of the mount via a special bit driver and you left it alone. There was no dialing for wind with ze Germans.
The elevation adjustment simply moves the picket post up and down within the scope. There are no clicks on the turret, only a smooth rotation which you can manually lock.
Generally, snipers would get their elevation dope via trial and error and then make marks on the turret ring (that rotates) as to what meter setting that mark was for.
Everything is very rough compared to current optics, but you're shooting minute of Communist torso, so it is what it is.
I want to get an idea (in MILS) as to what certain aspects of the reticle are so we can reference them when aiming/holding wind/shooting corrections. That way, I could use current tech like a ballistic calculator to allow for wind holds that I'd have something of a reference for as well as possibly being able to figure out how to use the area from the top triangle of the picket to where the downward angle ends on the picket as a base for calculating distance just like you would use a MIL: but with an obviously converted formula.
I've searched for this online and was surprised noone has ever done it from what I could find.
My 'plan' on how to figure this out (tell me where this is going to totally go wrong):
- Get a target with inch hash marks going up/down and right/left
- Put target out at 100 yards (where I would zero the gun at) and try to as best as possible, measure these distances:
1- Center of picket tip to the black 'side' bars on either side
2- Center of picket tip to the outside of the black picket bar (below where the angle in the tip ends and the bar is straight)
3- Top of picket tip to where the angle in the tip ends (vertical)
At this point, since 1 MIl @ 100 yards is 3.6 inches, and we dont want to use inches while shooting:
Lets just say the distance for #1 above is 2.4 inches at 100 (totally making this up). This means the distance between the picket tip and horizontal bar is .67 MIL or .7
If I do the same with the distance between the picket tip and the outside of the vertical picket bar, I'd have 2 reference points that would give me my minimum/maximum windage hold via the reticle. While not exact as there are no other subtensions, it will get me closer than guessing, which is where the 'art' of this whole thing really came into practice. Additionally, we know that a MIL is a MIL, so it would be .7 or whatever from 100 to 1k yards even though I know that since this isn't sceintific exact, I'll get some 'noise' in my calculations as we go further downrange as errors will compound. But again, 1930s tech and minute of Communist.
Does this sound about right so far?
The one thing I'm trying to figure out now is how can I calculate the constant (picket tip to where the picket taper ends on the vertical line) to take place in the standard distance calulation of (27.77 X target height inches)/MILS?
Or since we would know what the MIL reading in the reticle would be (we measured it via the above technique) could I simply always just divide the 27.77x target height, by whatever my picket post to picket taper 'line' measurment in MILS came out to be?
I've attached a state of the art diagram of the German #1 reticle and what we're going to measure.
#stillbetterthanIOR
I rememebr one of the things I had wanted to do in the past was to sort of 'map' the German #1 reticle in my original 1929 dated (by seriel number) Zeiss Zielsechs. Most of the shooting back then was more art than science/math but I wanted to see if I could somewhat mix the two a bit better as you receive basically zero additional information from the optic unlike how you do now with subtended reticles.
The scope I'm trying this with is a fixed 6x; so we don't have to worry about mag power versus reticle size. Secondly, there is no windage adjustment; you set the windage mechanically on the side of the mount via a special bit driver and you left it alone. There was no dialing for wind with ze Germans.
The elevation adjustment simply moves the picket post up and down within the scope. There are no clicks on the turret, only a smooth rotation which you can manually lock.
Generally, snipers would get their elevation dope via trial and error and then make marks on the turret ring (that rotates) as to what meter setting that mark was for.
Everything is very rough compared to current optics, but you're shooting minute of Communist torso, so it is what it is.
I want to get an idea (in MILS) as to what certain aspects of the reticle are so we can reference them when aiming/holding wind/shooting corrections. That way, I could use current tech like a ballistic calculator to allow for wind holds that I'd have something of a reference for as well as possibly being able to figure out how to use the area from the top triangle of the picket to where the downward angle ends on the picket as a base for calculating distance just like you would use a MIL: but with an obviously converted formula.
I've searched for this online and was surprised noone has ever done it from what I could find.
My 'plan' on how to figure this out (tell me where this is going to totally go wrong):
- Get a target with inch hash marks going up/down and right/left
- Put target out at 100 yards (where I would zero the gun at) and try to as best as possible, measure these distances:
1- Center of picket tip to the black 'side' bars on either side
2- Center of picket tip to the outside of the black picket bar (below where the angle in the tip ends and the bar is straight)
3- Top of picket tip to where the angle in the tip ends (vertical)
At this point, since 1 MIl @ 100 yards is 3.6 inches, and we dont want to use inches while shooting:
Lets just say the distance for #1 above is 2.4 inches at 100 (totally making this up). This means the distance between the picket tip and horizontal bar is .67 MIL or .7
If I do the same with the distance between the picket tip and the outside of the vertical picket bar, I'd have 2 reference points that would give me my minimum/maximum windage hold via the reticle. While not exact as there are no other subtensions, it will get me closer than guessing, which is where the 'art' of this whole thing really came into practice. Additionally, we know that a MIL is a MIL, so it would be .7 or whatever from 100 to 1k yards even though I know that since this isn't sceintific exact, I'll get some 'noise' in my calculations as we go further downrange as errors will compound. But again, 1930s tech and minute of Communist.
Does this sound about right so far?
The one thing I'm trying to figure out now is how can I calculate the constant (picket tip to where the picket taper ends on the vertical line) to take place in the standard distance calulation of (27.77 X target height inches)/MILS?
Or since we would know what the MIL reading in the reticle would be (we measured it via the above technique) could I simply always just divide the 27.77x target height, by whatever my picket post to picket taper 'line' measurment in MILS came out to be?
I've attached a state of the art diagram of the German #1 reticle and what we're going to measure.
#stillbetterthanIOR
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