Advanced Marksmanship Its been a while; MIL adjustments on the fly in the field

[TheGerman]

Have been thinking about going back to MIL/MIL after initially learning on MILs and then coming to the US before the great MIL/MIL scope conversion from MOA.

Anyways, wanted to see how some of you that shoot UKD targets handle adjustments between shots other than using your MIL reticule due to not being able to see the round impact due to vegetation, weather, mirage, distance, etc.

The normal coarse of action for us after identifying the target was this:

- Estimate range with reticule/binocs or utilize LRF
- Dial or hold for distance
- If a miss occurs, adjust via reticule or turrets based on where you saw the impact occur on your MIL reticule
- Reengage

Now this is pretty straightforward. The real question comes into play when you cannot see the impact for whatever reason and/or someone is calling your adjustments in inches?

For example, you are shooting at a target at 700 yards, you lose your round in the mirage and your spotter calls you 8 inches low. The only way I remember how to do this was that I had the full 1 MIL increments memorized (for yards it would be 3.6, 7.2, 10.8, 14.4 etc) and would quickly reverse engineer the 1 MIL number for the distance. For 700 yards the 1MIL value is 25.2. Take 25.2 and divide it by 10 = 2.52. So while we're not perfect here to get something to come exactly to 8 inches, you can dial or hold .3MIL for 7.56 or .4MIL for 10.08 inches (I'd hold .4 as I was probably off with my UKD estimate in the first place!)

Is there a quicker/new way to do this on the fly? Or does anyone else reverse engineer the number on the fly when the reticule doesn't show you your adjustment?

 

[TheGerman]

Give your spotter a reticle.

I assume you must have an idea of the size of target. In that case 8 inches low isn't that hard but a 2.5 ft 7 o'clock in high grass I suppose gets subjective pretty quick.

We had a shoot were you had this scenario. UKD targets were to be ranged (via any means) by the shooters prior to their run on a 30 shot run in a 15 min time frame.

There were people who understood mils, moa, only inches, nothing at all, combination there of. And some of the targets were only partially exposed. You have target sizes and only your idea as to the targets distance (if your lrf sucked you were double checking using mil relation).

RO's would call inches sometimes (because that's what they knew) some called in plate widths (your two target widths right) and some even called in MOA. And no one called in Mils except me cuz I had a reticle.

The thing I noticed using just my USO spotter was a lot of the guys who were calling MOA using just their eyes either were way off due to perception or ignorance. The only thing I will say to that is...its not the RO's job to spot for you...only call hit or miss. The shooter was given an opportunity to bring a partner.

A reticle in the spotter would have fixed this.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WdPoYPT1Y74&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Target size was always 1.80 meters unless instructed otherwise or you had an indicator of why it should be more (i.e. someone towered over/was dwarfed by the 'average' height guys in which case you just milled the average height guy)

I understand the spotter and the reticule; normally my spotting scope has the same reticule I use in the rifle so the sub-tensions are the same and people don't get confused or forget what the sub-tension value was.

What I am really trying to find out is, that besides relying 100% on your gear to help you, does anyone else use anything like what I used to when memorizing the full 1 MIL values and reverse engineering the numbers? Or does everyone just depend wholly on their gear now?

 

[TallShot]

Good info DFOO...


@ TheGerman... It would take some memorization on my part, but I kinda like the reverse math there you mentioned.

 

[Papa Zero Three]

The real question comes into play when you cannot see the impact for whatever reason and/or someone is calling your adjustments in inches?

This is what was taught and I and everyone else used when I went through the course, it's a "rule of thumb" for an E type silhouette man shaped target, it works fairly well for all wind conditions except a strong 12 oclock wind. This isn't gospel or hard and fast by any means, its an educated SWAG. If you aimed center mass and did not hit the tgt and you nor your spotter did not see the round impact the immediate follow up would be to aim at the bottom of the tgt and reengage. The assumption here is that the round went high over the tgt and by dropping your POA to the bottom of the tgt you will either hit the tgt or you or your spotter should be able to see the trace/splash on the 2nd shot as it will either be on tgt or definitely in the dirt. Knowing the size of an E-type in this example is what makes it work(bottom of tgt aka crotch to chest =19"). If your tgt is a different size then your hold low very well might not be at the bottom edge of the tgt itself but in the dirt below the tgt itself probably in the neighborhood of one whole tgt height, assuming your tgt is 12 x 12 or there abouts ( this is SWAG remember).

If your spotter is calling corrections in inches, ask him to call them in Mils. If it is inconceivable for him to recalibrate his Mk-1 eyeball from inches to mils then you will need to mil your tgt (which you should have already done)and use it as a scale to estimate his call in inches. You know what the 12 x 12" tgt looks like in mils, lets say it is an even 1mil for this conversation. Your spotter calls 6" low, you know that translates into up/+.5mils and you can then dial or hold the difference.

For example, you are shooting at a target at 700 yards, you lose your round in the mirage and your spotter calls you 8 inches low.

In your example if I was shooting at an E type tgt center mass and got that call I would aim at the top edge of the tgts head. This correction would put me in the chest region at or just below the sternum. This is far from precision keyhole shooting but it is quick field SWAG that generally works pretty good once you get used to using it and know the size of your tgts. I'm sure someone has a different or better method but this is what I was taught and it worked for me during the course and when overseas. YMMV, hope my explanation helps you.

 

[Lowlight]

People convolute stuff ...

If you're using mils and your spotter inches you have bigger problems, it's 2013, we've progressed beyond 1982 techniques, at least I would hope.

But for giggles, if you spotter said you hit 8" low at 700 yards, ( forget he should call to center and not the edge of the target) 1 MOA at 700 is 7 inches right?

In the reticle for every .25 mil you have 1 MOA so,

.25 mils = 1
.50 mils = 2
.75 mils = 3
1 mil = 4 MOA

down an dirty you're there, hold .25 mils higher, 1 moa. ( for an edge hit anyway) Besides how did he measure 8" at 700 yards ? Instead let's guess you dropped below the plate, could be 6" could be 12". Now consider your circle of accuracy as well as the size of the target, you can easily just hold half a plate high, wide, whatever and absorb the hit. If you were holding center you can move to the top of the head. You already know you're off the bottom by a small margin. Hold higher.

Its easier to use whole numbers after all the target is huge at 1.8m. Lots of room for error in that.