Part 2, What's in a click?

While things are getting colder outside, things have been heating up on the email side of the blog.  Folks are exploring ways to get an indoor shooting rig set up for the 10m Silhouette challenge so they can be warm while they practice.  But, like anything that is worth doing, there are a few obstacles along the way.  Let's look at them as great learning opportunities and not a reason to skip it.

First on the list is focus.  Not all scopes are capable of focusing down to 33 feet.  But, there are a number that do.  The KT-15 does.  The Sightron 6-24x42 does even at full 24 power.  Even my Bushness Elite 4200 8-32x40 will focus at 20x.  Non EFR 6.5-20x40 Leupolds won't.  Before you tear apart your summer gun, make sure it works at 33 feet.  Some scopes will at their lowest power but not at a higher power.  See what you have.  Of course with an aperture you don't have this problem.

The next challenge is the scope's range of reticle adjustment.  The reason I wrote the MOA post was to create a better understanding of how a scope works and what the specifications truly mean.  Optics are far more complex an instrument than most users give them credit. Understanding what a click is on your scope and what that equates to in MOA and change of your POI on the paper or steel target is important.  I have presented the math, now let's understand what it means in the real world.

Hopefully my "top of barrel" and "imaginary circle at the 100 yard range" comparison made sense.  Bottom line, the "length" or "distance" of a MOA unit changes as you move out on the "radius" which is the distance between you and the object on which your scope is focused.  Obviously at 10 meters, a few clicks on your scope won't do much.  At 10m, 1 moa (four clicks) adjustment is only worth .11".  Or, 2.9mm at 10 meters for the civilized world!  My point, one click on a typical 1/4 moa scope is only going to move that pellet 3 mm!  Not much.

Scope specs.  When you are shooting at 100 yards, both the focus and the mechanical range of a basic scope is not that demanding. No surprise that marketeers make scopes that perform well in this common use but not so well in other less common uses.  Why add extra cost when you don't have to?  Read your scope's specs.  It might have a total "theoretical" range of 60 moa or less.  Old Leupold 6.5-20 have 90 and a Nightforce has 100 moa range.  The new Leupold 25x made for silhouette, only 40 moa.  Yuck.  I'm not suggesting you need these scopes to play the game.  I am just trying to illustrate there is a difference other than price.

You never want to be at the outer range of adjustment so it may only be 50 MOA or less that is usable.  If your scope is not "windage centered", this 50 MOA may be just 30 MOA.  People never experiment with their scope in this manner when it fact it can be quite educational at close range.  I recently put my Sightron through the test and was reminded how not all scopes are equal.  Max elevation range was just 6" at at 33".  Not much!  Specs tell me I have just 40 moa range in elevation. 

So, what is in a click?  At 10m, about .7mm.  Not much!  Now, how many clicks will your scope allow?  And, on the last 8 clicks, was the reticle even moving?  All these things can be explored and better appreciated by shooting at close range.  What is the effective operating range of your favorite scope?

For the 1/5th game you need to understand these things.  If you see your shot is under the rail at chickens, putting in 1 click is useless.  I might argue 1 click at chickens is useless period.  Is your gun and ammo really that accurate that a .11" adjustment will have any relevance?  Heck, 4 clicks, a full 1 MOA is still just 1/2 inch.  Get to rams, and a full MOA it is worth 1.15".  That is the point I wanted to make in this post.  What is a click really worth at the four distances we shoot!  Something important to understand when you feel like you broke on the animal but the bullet went elsewhere.

Good shooting!

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