Every scope speaks one of two angular languages. Neither is more accurate, but mixing them, or buying a scope whose turrets don't match its reticle, will cost you hits. Here's what the units mean, the maths at real distances, and how to choose.
Both are angles, not distances. An angle gets wider the further out you go, which is exactly what you want from a scope adjustment.
One mil equals about 3.44 MOA. The rifle doesn't care which you use. Your brain, under time pressure, very much does.
MRAD is base ten with metres, and almost every UK range is marked in metres. If your shot lands 15 cm low at 300 metres, that is 0.5 mil: dial five clicks and you're on. No conversion, no fractions.
MOA thinks in inches and yards. If you grew up on "an inch at a hundred", quarter-MOA clicks feel natural: a group 2 inches low at 200 yards is 1 MOA, four clicks. The arithmetic is just as valid; it simply fits yards better than metres.
Click sizes are close enough not to matter in the field: a quarter MOA (about 7 mm at 100 m) is slightly finer than 0.1 mil (10 mm at 100 m). Benchrest shooters chasing the last millimetre sometimes pick 1/8 MOA turrets; everyone else should ignore click size entirely when choosing.
One thing the turret can't fix: the data you dial from. Drop tables are only as good as the muzzle velocity behind them, which is why we wrote a guide to measuring yours.
Nearly every scope sold today pairs turrets and reticle in the same unit, and that's no accident: a mismatch forces a conversion on every correction. Plenty of older scopes paired a mil-dot reticle with MOA turrets, though, and they still circulate second-hand. Miss with one of those and the reticle reads 0.6 mil while the turret wants 0.6 × 3.44 worked out in your head, all while the fox walks off. With a matched scope you read 0.6, you dial or hold 0.6, done. Buying new, you barely need to think about it. Buying used, check before you pay.
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Neither. Both are angular units and the scope's mechanical quality matters far more than the unit on its turret. A quarter-MOA click is marginally finer than a 0.1 mil click; in the field the difference is invisible.
Exactly 1 cm per 100 metres: 1 cm at 100, 2 cm at 200, 5 cm at 500. Multiply the distance in hundreds of metres by the mils and you have centimetres.
Yes. Both units are angles and work with any distance unit; the arithmetic is just cleaner when mils are paired with metres and MOA with yards.
You can work with it: 1 mil equals about 3.44 MOA, so a miss of 0.5 mil needs roughly 1.75 MOA, or seven quarter-MOA clicks. But it is friction on every shot, and worth designing out of your next purchase.
If you'll range, hold off or call corrections with the reticle, first focal plane: it reads true at every magnification. If the scope lives on a stalking rifle and you shoot at known distances, second focal plane is simpler and often brighter for the money.
Last reviewed 7 November 2026. Spotted something out of date? Tell us and we'll fix it.