If you are looking to choose a reticle for your new rifle scope, this article should help you understand the difference between MOA and MRAD.

A big part of being an outdoorsman is knowing your gear. Do you shoot a black powder, lever action, or bolt action? Do you buy factory loads or do you hand load all of your own cartridges? What caliber do you shoot? How you answer these questions says something about you and what you think is important. Choosing a reticle in your scope is also a decision that says something about you, but not as much as you may think.

One debate that rages across the shooting community today is whether an MOA or MRAD reticle is best. Advocates on either side will go on and on about how one reticle is superior to another and tout its advantages. It is true there are differences between the two types of reticles that should be understood. It is also true that one or the other will be a better fit for you. What you decide, and how you choose a reticle for your next scope, is something you should put some thought into.

If you are looking to buy your next riflescope and are considering an MOA reticle or a MRAD reticle but don’t know the differences, here are a few things to consider.

MOA Basics

First off, let’s take a look at the MOA scope. MOA stands for minutes of angle are they are very popular scopes here in the US. These scopes are broken down in the angular units called minutes of angle. To help you understand what that means, imagine you are looking at a quarter circle. Around the edge of that quarter circle are 5,400 of little marks each evenly spaced. Each one of those marks represents a minute of angle. Now to help that make more sense, let’s apply that understanding to a shooting situation.

Imagine a shooter is at the 90˚ angle of that quarter circle. Remember it has 5,400 marks evenly spaced along the edge. We all know that as bullets travel they succumb to the force of gravity and drop over distance. To compensate on longer shots the shooter must elevate the barrel to put more arc on the shot. That “arc” would correspond to one of the 5,400 minutes of angle on that quarter circle we imagined. The more he elevates, the further he can shoot, and the more minutes of angle he has adjusted.

Now that we understand what a minute of angle is, it should be fairly easy to understand how an MOA scope works. In the reticle (or “crosshairs”) an MOA scope is divided with lots of different dashes. It depends on the specific scope what each dash represents. One thing that is universal is that at 100 yards, 1 minute of angle (MOA) is 1”. That means that if you shoot 1” low at 100 yards, you need to adjust up 1 minute of angle. The same is true for wind adjustments. As you back away from the target, an MOA increases in size. Fortunately for math’s sake it changes at an easy rate to remember. For example, at 500 yards 1 MOA equals 5” and at 1,000 yards, 1 MOA equals 10”. Pretty easy math, right? This system allows you to easily make adjustments to accommodate for elevation and windage.

Now how can you adjust? Most scopes are designed where each “click” changes ¼ MOA. That means at 100 yards, 1 click equals ¼ inch, and at 1,000 yards the adjustment is 2.5”. For example, let’s imagine you are shooting a target at 800 yards and you shoot 12 inches low. At 800 yards 1 MOA is 8” and each click adjusts 2” (1/4 of the distance). If you shot 12” low you would need to adjust your scope 6 clicks up (2x6=12). All it takes is a little simple math to make your adjustments.

MRAD

Now, if you understand how a MOA scope operates, you can easily make the adjustment to an MRAD, or Mil Dot, scope. In this case MRAD means milliradian, which is often shortened to “mil”. A “mil” is the same as a minute of angle, in that a mil is an angular unit. Remember the quarter circle you imagined earlier? That quarter circle was broken down into 5,400 little marks called minutes of angle. Now re-imagine that quarter circle, but this time only with 1,570 marks. Each of those marks now represents a milliradian, or mil.

At first you can quickly come to the conclusion that a MOA is a smaller unit so it is more accurate. While that is true, it probably isn’t worth getting too wrapped up in. At 1,000 yards the difference equals only a little over an inch. The difference is so small that for all of us except a special van full of people in the world, it doesn’t amount to any difference at all.

Now back to the point at hand. Most people who use mil dot scopes operate using the metric system, so that’s how we will communicate here. At 100 meters 1 mil equals 10 cm. At the same distance, 1 “click” adjusts your angle 1 cm. Therefore, if you shoot 5cm high at 100m, you need to adjust 5 clicks down to hit the center of the target. As you walk the distance out things stay much the same. At 1,000 m, 1 mil equals 100 cm and each click adjusts 10 cm. That means if you shot 70 cm low, you would need to adjust 7 clicks up to make your adjustment. As with MOA the same is true for windage adjustments.

What Does it Mean?

What does all this mean? Well, as you read you may have found one section making more sense than another. It likely comes down to whether you think in terms of yards or in meters. If you think in terms of yards you could likely visualize the MOA explanation better. On the other hand, if you tend to think in metric the mil dot explanation likely made more sense. Therein lies the biggest difference between these two types of reticles. How you think and communicate is probably the biggest indicator of whether you should be using MOA or MRAD. You’ll also want to consider who you will shoot around and how the ranges will be determined. Do you and your hunting buddies take 350-yard shots? If so you’ll more easily be able to communicate if you use an MOA scope. Perhaps you take a 325m shot. If that’s the case, go with a MRAD reticle and you’ll no doubt be able to quickly make your adjustments.

In all honesty, you can make adjustments for either system to the other unit of measure. Put another way, if you have an MRAD scope and somebody gives you the distance in yards, there are equations to help you figure out how the conversion would work. To make life easiest though, when you chose a reticle do yourself a favor and get one that works in the units you know you will use. At the end of the day that is about all your choice of reticle will say about you.

If you’ve enjoyed this article and want to learn more about this subject, you might find this video one YouTuber made interesting showcasing 1,100 yard shots with both reticles.

UP NEXT; WHAT'S THE BEST RIMFIRE CARTRIDGE

Foundry Outdoors is your trusted home for buying archery, camping, fishing, hunting, shooting sports, and outdoor gear online.

We offer cheap ammo and bulk ammo deals on the most popular ammo calibers. We have a variety of deals on Rifle Ammo, Handgun Ammo, Shotgun Ammo & Rimfire Ammo, as well as ammo for target practice, plinking, hunting, or shooting competitions. Our website lists special deals on 9mm Ammo, 10mm Ammo, 45-70 Ammo, 6.5 Creedmoor ammo, 300 Blackout Ammo, 10mm Ammo, 5.56 Ammo, Underwood Ammo, Buffalo Bore Ammo and more special deals on bulk ammo.

We offer a 100% Authenticity Guarantee on all products sold on our website. Please email us if you have questions about any of our product listings.