Viewing a single comment thread. View all comments

Moskau50 t1_je62m54 wrote

The scopes can be dialed to a specific range. This changes the angle that the scope points relative to the barrel, so that the arc of the bullet (gravity pulls down on the bullet as it moves through the air) meets the line of sight of the scope at the prescribed distance. The higher the range, the lower the scope points, so the bullet has to drop further (meaning it flies farther horizontally) to meet the sight line.

24

Any-Growth8158 t1_je64scf wrote

I believe real scopes also have the ability to dial in a wind which adjusts the horizontal direction of the scope--or maybe they just manually move over a couple lines.

11

YellsAtGoats t1_je8k0z3 wrote

Scopes intended for long ranges will typically have multiple markers for multiple ranges. I.e., along one long vertical line, you have a specific horizontal line for 100 yards, and another one for 200 yards, and another one for 300 yards, etc.

These account for basic bullet drop, but then you will have to do some on-the-fly adjustment for things like wind. This is one of the reasons why, in the military, someone in a "sniper" role often has a "spotter"... the recoil action of the rifle might throw the sniper's viewing window way off and require him to have to re-aim all over again the for next shot, but the spotter has an unaffected view of where the last shot landed to help the sniper recalculate the next shot.

2