MOA vs MIL and how scope clicks really work
Understand minute of angle, how it compares to mil, and how turret clicks translate an angle into inches of point of impact shift.
What a minute of angle actually is
A minute of angle is one sixtieth of a degree, a tiny slice of a circle. Projected downrange it spreads out, covering 1.047 inches at 100 yards and roughly double that at 200. Because it is an angle rather than a fixed length, the same MOA value always covers proportionally more inches the farther your target sits. That property is exactly why scope turrets are marked in MOA instead of inches.
True MOA versus the one inch shortcut
Plenty of shooters treat 1 MOA as 1 inch at 100 yards, which is close but not exact. The real figure is 1.047 inches, a 4.7 percent difference. At 100 yards that half inch hardly matters, but at 600 yards the shortcut is off by nearly three quarters of an inch, enough to miss a small target. This calculator uses the true value so your dialed correction matches reality at distance.
How turret clicks map to the angle
Each click on an elevation or windage turret moves your point of impact by a fixed fraction of an MOA, usually a quarter, a half or an eighth. To find the clicks for a correction you divide the MOA you need by that per click value. Dialing 3 MOA on a quarter MOA turret takes 12 clicks, while the same 3 MOA on a half MOA turret takes only 6. Knowing your click value is the difference between a centered group and a chase around the target.
MOA compared to mil
The other common angular unit is the milliradian, or mil, where one mil equals about 3.6 inches at 100 yards. Mil turrets and mil reticles pair naturally, just as MOA turrets pair with MOA reticles. Neither unit is more accurate, they are simply different rulers, and mixing a MOA reticle with a mil turret leads to conversion mistakes. Stick to one system and this calculator keeps you in the MOA world end to end.