Mil Dot Vs BDC Reticle Which One Is For You

A mill-dot can do anything a BDC can do and more. You can use a rangefinder with mill-dots and not bother with trying to figure out distance using the guessed height of a target. That was used before we had cheap range finders. You can find the range via mill-dots (crude), range finder or even using the side or front parallax knobs. You need to know the range on both types. And you need to know what power the mill-dots are calibrated for if the scope is a second focal plane scope.

But it most hunting situation you sight in the gun so you can hold dead on without thinking at all out to say 150 yards. Can just put a cheat card on the cap of the scope that says at 12x hold dead out to 200 yards, 300 yards 1 mill dot, 400 yards 2 mill dot etc.

Nicely explained. Thank you 👍🏻

VERY FEW EXPERIENCED SHOOTERS BUY'S A LONG RANGE SCOPE WITHOUT A BDL BUILT INTO THE SCOPE FOR YOUR PARTICULAR CALIBER. IT'S UNFORTUNATE THAT LEUPOLD DOESN'T HAVE A RANGE FINDER IN THE LOWER LEFT QUADRANT AND WITH THE OPTION FOR YARDAGE, AS THE NIGHTFORCE HAS…THEY ALSO HAVE A BDL. ALTHOUGH, LEUPOLD DOES HAVE A SMALL HANDHELD RANGE FINDER AS AN ACCESSORY FOR RANGING DISTANCE. U.S. SHOOTERS PREFER THE OPTION OF YARDAGE TO METERS, WHICH IS FASTER WITHOUT GOING INTO THE METRIC SYSTEM, BUT LEUP0LD IS NOT INTERESTED IN ACCOMMODATING SAID SHOOTERS, AS UNDERSTOOD! : BUT IF YOU PREFER YARDAGE, NIGHTFORCE W/BDL IS THE WAY TO GO!

For hunting it's probably easiest to go with a simple duplex reticle and a MPBR zero. For target/competition/tactical shooting mildot will probably be your best friend.

Both are good, I like BDC reticle more.

Bro, decent video but slow down.

There's a fundamental problem with "mil-dots" nobody realizes or at least talks about. A "mil" grows as range increases just like an MOA does. But with equally-spaced mil-dots with gaps separating them that aren't "growing" BELOW the "horizontal crosshair" to COMPENSATE for that growth, you can't accurately use "mil-dots" for "holdover" by using double the "mils" at 400 yards as you do at 200 yards. DROP INCREASES as RANGE INCREASES. So-called "tangent sights" calibrated/graduated for hundreds of meters that have EQUAL SPACES between the graduations despite the fact that your "drop" at 1000 meters will always be MORE than double the drop at 500 meters are ALSO "flawed" for the same reason. You also can't use your POI shift to "measure" the range to a target using your ballistic data with "mils" like you can with "MOA". If a "4 click" elevation adjustment on a 1/4 MOA elevation turret shifts your POI 4 inches and you can look at your data and "arc" and see how far from you a "0 degree" shooting angle will produce 4 inches of drop, you've just ranged the target. Even if you MISS twice in a row if you can "accurately" estimate how far the first miss was from the second, you can get a pretty good idea of the range. But because a "mil" is a "dimensionless quantity" and is dependent ON the "range", unless you GET that "6 foot" guy standing there by the target and estimate your range using THAT and your "mils", you have no idea how far away the target is and no clue how much elevation adjustment in "mils" to dial in or "hold". Of course using MIL DOTS you're pretty much SCREWED if your HOLD exceeds the number of mil-dots you have available to USE to judge you "hold".

horus reticle

So I have a dumb question if I zero in at 50 every line on the BDC will be 50 each eg. 50,100,150,200 etc?

For hunting(not target shooting), it sure looks like some sort of BDC that's appropriate for your caliber is the place to start. And with testing, adapt the BDC to your ammo. You'll be shooting quickly, and you want info in the view for distance and windage.

I had a Burris duplex reticle for 30 years. Sent it in for reticle change. Told Burris my cal. and bullet weight. Got it back with a nice note that the BDC reticle was calibrated to and for my round. Guess what! used to shoot holes touching @100 yds. (once re-zeroed) now it shoots a tighter pattern. Karmaskid is correct. A BDC OTC scope needs to be calibrated to the round your using. Nikon does have a program where you can generate a print out of your bullets trajectory and tape it to your stock so in the field you can have a reference.

I use BDC reticles because I find it easier for me to count the dots and circles. I don't like MIL DOT whether it is MRAD or MOA. But what I do with BDC's is that I get very use to it mounted on my rifle, with my hand load, and I keep shooting until it becomes second nature to me. After that, I can just point and shoot. I do not read that little piece of paper that comes with the scope.

Some people dont believe a BCD is accurate. But for minute of deer, and 6 inches is what your going for. It works well out to 300 meters. Its the same as a soldier using an ACOG. At practical ranges it works fine for hunting humans or animals. If your a target shooter… go with MIL or MOA.

While I like the BDC reticle I kinda grew up on mil dots, in a way. In a game called ArmA2 bullet physics are rendered realistically and follow a similar trajectory a real bullet would make from a gun. In this game I trained as a designated marksman using an M1A Socom with a mil dot scope. Over time, just by using the rifle and scope, I could easily estimate hold over off hand if I knew an estimated range to target. It just takes practice to know how to use without wasting time making calculations. In the field you don't always have time to sit down and calculate. But that's just my experience and I'm sure someone will disagree since I played a videogame for this knowledge even if the game is like a MilSim.

Are BDC scopes made only for specific calibers ? How do i determine my scope is for a .308 ?

Thanx great video it really simplified it for me, glad I got the BDC though!! LOL

wouldn't it have to be a fixed power scope for mil-dot. a 6 foot man will cover a different number of dots depending on what the scope power is at. am I wrong in saying that.

Thank you. It was a wonderful lesson

Lots of comments, but the real difference is……about 200 dollars. If I had found a mil dot scope in my price range, I'd have got one. Instead, I'll get what I can afford now and just calc the numbers for range finding and bullet drop based on the rifle it becomes attached to with whatever Hornady load i find is the best match for that rifle. Rather than wait for the extra 200 to accumulate for a scope that won't be used near as often as I'd like.
But that's just me.
And I did thumbs up your video. 😉

That cleared some things up for me, thx

Just get a mildot they are simple as…each mil is 3.6" per 100yd (or 10cm per 100m), since you should already know your bullet drop over that distance it's not really much of a calculation.
Otherwise you're going to need to buy a specifically calibrated BDC scope. It has to match YOUR specific bullet drop rate…

Mil-Dot would be better for say a sniper who is sitting or laying in a position and you have time to do a proper range measure or calculate range then use your gunnery solution method and then turn dials to get to the closest setting you can achieve while a BDC is a visual gunnery solution so that say you were in the field and you have more than one target or even one you don't waste precious time pressing buttons on a calculator or turning dials on a scope you merely use the BDC to size and range the target and then use the appropriate range lines on the reticle to instantly aim and fire. This seems to be a much quicker and functional method of obtaining the gunnery solution. Obviously using the Reticle that has holdover marks is not as exacting as the Mil-Dot method though for a quick fire method at hitting multiple targets in crunch time the BDC reticle with ranging and aiming holdover can be an advantage if accurate fire now verses precise data later is necessary.

MOA turrets and Mil dot reticle is this normal?

Ignore this and buy a Mil/Mil scope. BDC almost never matches your rifle, load, or barrel.

It would make more sense to compare mil-dot to MOA. I live in the USA, so MOA beats milDot since we use INCHES, not centimeters. Also, 1/4 MOA is a finer adjustment than 1/10 mil.

It really depends on the application and the shooters preferences.

A MilDot/MOA reticle with the corresponding turrets is better suited for someone who is going to constantly be dialing in firing solutions in order to engage targets at different ranges. A BDC reticle (or any type of simple crosshair reticle for that matter) was intended to be zero'd and left alone.

A BDC reticle is better suited to what I refer to as "snap shooting" applications such as hunting medium to large game. In this situation you're not worried about "minute of angle" so much as you're worried about "minute of deer". Optics manufacturers (such as Vortex) provide very detailed information on how to zero a scope with a BDC reticle so your bullet drop closely approximates the reticle in the optic. You can also go directly to most manufacturers websites, enter in your load information and get precise data on the ranges where your bullets trajectory lines up with the delineations in the reticle of your optic.

Short story…BDC reticle are not the most precise thing going. They were never intended to be. They do, however, work just fine for their intended purpose if you read the manual and zero the optic accordingly.

BDC only work if you use the same grain bullet, with the same co-efficient and velocity as the BDC was calibrated for. Otherwise you are off, and it's worthless. Even a BDC for a specific caliber and rifle such as an AR will only be accurate as long as your ammo matches the ammo used to calibrate (design) the info in your BDC. Use Mil-Dots.