In hunting/shooting, you will often see the term MOA (which stands for minute of angle).
What exactly is an (MOA) minute of angle when it comes to shooting?
asked Jun 18 '18 at 6:06
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Note that MOA also stands for "minute of arc," which fortunately means the same thing. – feetwet May 20 '19 at 18:49
A minute of angle is a measure of an angle. It is 1/60th of a degree, 1/21600th of a circle.
Often times you will see this in
- Scope increments, 1/8 of an MOA is more precise than 1/4.
- Scope vertical adjustment range
- The ticks on a mil-dot reticle scope are usually given in MOA.
- The size of the dot on a reflex or red dot sight.
- The accuracy of a firearm, smaller or even sub-moa is better.
In regards to distance, one MOA corresponds to 1.047 inches per 100 yards, so 1 inch at 100 yards and 3 inches at 300 yards.
This can be useful to know when sighting in if you are 2 inches low at 100 yards, you need to move the scope up 2 MOA for 8 increments on a 1/4 MOA increment scope.
MOA can also be used for ranging targets with the right scope, a 12-inch prairie dog will be 12 MOA tall at 100 yards and 6 MOA at 200 yards.
answered Jun 18 '18 at 6:06
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You somehow missed the joke answer "60 seconds of angle, of course" :) Back to being serious; it would be helpful to link to the geometrical concept arcsecond, which is here en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minute_and_second_of_arc – Stian Yttervik Jun 18 '18 at 17:08
