Confusing instructions from my Matchdot II

I was rewriting sight corrections in my shooting diary.   I wanted to be sure I hadn't transposed anything or made math errors.   Consider my surprise when I looked at my Matchdot II's paperwork and the instructions said 

The Matchdot II's red dot will move 1 MOA per click at 100 yards and 1/2 MOA per click at 50 yards.

If I understand it correctly, any scope adjusts the angle between the barrel and scope with the elevation and windage screws.   The sight can't know what distance you are shooting at in order to automatically change the MOA per click.    The MOA per click is translated into inches depending on the distance of the target.

Am I correct in thinking that the instructions should have said

The Matchdot II's red dot will move 1 MOA per click, which at 100 yards is roughly 1" on the target and 1/2" MOA per click at 50 yards.

Correct!

It may be a case where the directions are geared to the average mope who may or may not have a grasp of simple trigonometry.

I’m missing something, seems clear to me?

Jim, if it moves 1 MOA per click at 100, it moves 1 MOA at any distance. At different distances 1 MOA translates to different shot spacing. Hope that helps.

Seems clear to me too. Looks like you are picking nits (or I'm an average mope.....)

Ahh, the 1/2 MOA is the nit, er, issue

Nit wits!!!!!

Ian,
Here is line that states Matchdot II specs for per click adjustment - Windage/Elevation Adjustments: 1 MOA per click
So line that you quoted should simply state
"The Matchdot II's red dot will move 1" MOA per click at 100 yards and 1/2" MOA per click at 50 yards."  I understand, it is semantics, but MOA represents adjustment that gets translated into movement, and as correctly stated above, 1 MOA per click represents exactly same adjustment at all distances, but will translate into different length of movement and it will be proportional to the distance to the target, i.e. at 400 yard 1 MOA adjustment translates into 4" movement of PoI from previous one.
AP

PhotoEscape wrote:Ian,
Here is line that states Matchdot II specs for per click adjustment - Windage/Elevation Adjustments: 1 MOA per click
So line that you quoted should simply state
"The Matchdot II's red dot will move 1" MOA per click at 100 yards and 1/2" MOA per click at 50 yards."  I understand, it is semantics, but MOA represents adjustment that gets translated into movement, and as correctly stated above, 1 MOA per click represents exactly same adjustment at all distances, but will translate into different length of movement and it will be proportional to the distance to the target, i.e. at 400 yard 1 MOA adjustment translates into 4" movement of PoI from previous one.
AP

And we have a winner! 

This statement above is the correct answer. MOA interpretation depends on the distance.

1 MOA is 1/60 of a degree.  Think of it as a very thin slice of pie that is only 1" wide at 100yds (actually 1.047").  

MOA math if you have an optic where 1 click = 1 MOA and you want to know how much it will move the POI at a given distance just use the formula distance-to-target-in-yds/100 = " of POI movement per click 

Optic with 1 MOA per click  =
100/100 = 1" POI move per click
50/100 = .5" POI move per click,
300/100 = 3" POI move per click.

Optic with 1/2 MOA per click is only .5" @ 100yds (Aimpoint)
100/100 = .5" POI move per click
50/100 = .25" POI move per click,
25/100 = .125" POI move per click
300/100 = 1.25" POI move per click.

As you can see a 1 MOA per click scope would be worthless shooting a rifle at 1,000 yds because every click would move the POI 10"

- Dave
they explain it here better than I can
https://www.nssf.org/shooting/minute-angle-moa/

Ok, real world answer: a click is...a click. And rarely does it give the textbook result on the target. Click, shoot, scope, repeat as necessary.

When sighting in my Matchdot II long ago, the clicks seemed more like an approximation.  There's likely "play" in the parts.  Eventually the hole ended up where it should, but by then I had an idea of where it would move to with perhaps four clicks.  It also seemed that when one adjustment was done, the other adjustment needed to be fine tuned.

If my memory is correct, when I did this with an Aimpoint, the adjustments seemed more consistent.  

Back to the Matchdot, they have instructions that come with the sight, and better instructions online.  When I called about that, the girl who answered (very nice person too!) told me she was involved in improving the instructions.


Does anyone know exactly what parts move, inside the sight, when you turn one of these adjustments?  Is there an online cutaway drawing that shows it?

Adjusting an AimPoint on the line.

Brian Zins

He just needed a bigger hammer!