I've seen a few Mil reticles out there that are made to help with quick ranging. I really like the concept of the MSR reticle but shoot MOA. Right now the MOA reticle I like the most (in theory since it isn't out yet) is the new Vortex EBR-2C reticle. I was thinking from a ranging perspective it would make sense to add a feature or two to help with quick ranging. Not that anyone shooting MOA would ever need to range a person (since military uses Mil and anyone non-military really doesn't need to shoot a person - unless some LE uses MOA???) but since there is an accepted average height of a person (72"), a ranging formula for MOA, and the results never change based on those inputs, adding some horizontal ranging bars would be pretty cool. Since applications of an MOA scope are mostly target shooting/hunting, maybe instead of using 72", reduce that down to the average height to a deer's shoulder (34" - I can be wrong with that number - internet says 27-41", avg = 34"), which is fairly close to an average sized man's waist to top of his head (roughly 30"). Maybe go crotch to top of head to get closer to 34" if you still needed to range a person. In any case, it would be a good tool I think to be able to use quickly if you don't have a range finder with you or your batteries die or whatever the case may be. Because when I think about ideas I tend to draw them out on paper, I drew up the below to get an idea of what it might look like after I did a ranging formula to determine the MOAs of a 72" target at 100-1000 yards (yes I used 95.5 instead of 100 in the formula).
Took the MSR ranging reticle idea and merged it with the Vortex EBR-2C. Picture is pulled from Ilya's review of the Vortex Gen II HD 4.5-27x and this picture is said to be at the highest magnification. I then drew in .5 MOA lines on the verticle ranging axis (would like to make the lines wider at 1 MOA, then wider again at 5 MOA, and then the widest at 10 MOA for quicker reading. These would be used for any matches where the size of the target is known, but the distance isn't (say shooting 12" steel at unknown distances). The horizontal ranging lines would represent the quick ranging for a 72" target (these would be divided lower if 34" was used instead). Numbers for each line represent distance in yards/100. At 27x, the 200 and 100 yard indicators would not be present in the scope (need 34.4 and 68.8 MOA visible in the sight picture to see them). And while I do realize that Vortex has built in the .5 MOA ranging scale at the top of the reticle, from 20 MOA and up, I'd prefer using the zero horizontal axis as my baseline since objects being ranged aren't going to be only 2 MOA wide (subtension of the 20 MOA line) and I don't want to have to hover the object over a 2 MOA line.
Image 1: Modified Vortex EBR-2C MOA reticle at 27x with ranging bars and verticle ranging axis (Picture from Ilya's Review)
Could also stagger the quick ranging bars like so (eliminate the veritcal ranging axis). Ignore the blue line from the scanner.
Image 2: Modified Vortex EBR-2C MOA reticle at 27x with ranging bars only (Picture from Ilya's Review)
At 3x with thicker subtensions (maybe 1 MOA - dark bars in the reticle already are 2 MOA) for the ranging lines for 100-400 yards, they'd be easily visible (shown using the staggered model from Image 2. If Image 1's model was used, they'd be lined up veritcally). Would expect that if you wanted to range something further out than 400, you'd be cranking up the magnification where the subtensions for 500-1000 are say .5 MOA so they don't obstruct the view. The numbers above the horizontal ranging bars would not be visible at 3x.
Image 3: Modified Vortex EBR-2C MOA reticle at 3x (Picture from Ilya's Review)
Any other MOA shooters out there think they might like to see something like this in a reticle? Think it might be useful to you in any way? I'm doing a lot of hypothesizing and estimating to determine practicality in my head and to me it seems useful enough. Figure if I went out in the field with just my rifle and saw a deer off in the distance, something like this would get me a lot closer to target than I could get myself otherwise.
To all you Mil/Mil guys out there...yes I know I should just switch!
Took the MSR ranging reticle idea and merged it with the Vortex EBR-2C. Picture is pulled from Ilya's review of the Vortex Gen II HD 4.5-27x and this picture is said to be at the highest magnification. I then drew in .5 MOA lines on the verticle ranging axis (would like to make the lines wider at 1 MOA, then wider again at 5 MOA, and then the widest at 10 MOA for quicker reading. These would be used for any matches where the size of the target is known, but the distance isn't (say shooting 12" steel at unknown distances). The horizontal ranging lines would represent the quick ranging for a 72" target (these would be divided lower if 34" was used instead). Numbers for each line represent distance in yards/100. At 27x, the 200 and 100 yard indicators would not be present in the scope (need 34.4 and 68.8 MOA visible in the sight picture to see them). And while I do realize that Vortex has built in the .5 MOA ranging scale at the top of the reticle, from 20 MOA and up, I'd prefer using the zero horizontal axis as my baseline since objects being ranged aren't going to be only 2 MOA wide (subtension of the 20 MOA line) and I don't want to have to hover the object over a 2 MOA line.
Image 1: Modified Vortex EBR-2C MOA reticle at 27x with ranging bars and verticle ranging axis (Picture from Ilya's Review)
Could also stagger the quick ranging bars like so (eliminate the veritcal ranging axis). Ignore the blue line from the scanner.
Image 2: Modified Vortex EBR-2C MOA reticle at 27x with ranging bars only (Picture from Ilya's Review)
At 3x with thicker subtensions (maybe 1 MOA - dark bars in the reticle already are 2 MOA) for the ranging lines for 100-400 yards, they'd be easily visible (shown using the staggered model from Image 2. If Image 1's model was used, they'd be lined up veritcally). Would expect that if you wanted to range something further out than 400, you'd be cranking up the magnification where the subtensions for 500-1000 are say .5 MOA so they don't obstruct the view. The numbers above the horizontal ranging bars would not be visible at 3x.
Image 3: Modified Vortex EBR-2C MOA reticle at 3x (Picture from Ilya's Review)
Any other MOA shooters out there think they might like to see something like this in a reticle? Think it might be useful to you in any way? I'm doing a lot of hypothesizing and estimating to determine practicality in my head and to me it seems useful enough. Figure if I went out in the field with just my rifle and saw a deer off in the distance, something like this would get me a lot closer to target than I could get myself otherwise.
To all you Mil/Mil guys out there...yes I know I should just switch!
