The mil dot reticle is perhaps the best-known of long-range reticles. "Mil" is an abbreviation for milliradian, 1/6400 of a degree in angular measurement. That's 3.6 inches at 100 yards and three feet at l,000 yards.

In a reticle, a mil is the space between 3/4-minute dots strung vertically and horizontally along a crosswire. To use this reticle as a rangefinder, you divide target height in mils at 100 yards by the number of spaces subtending it. For example, a deer three feet tall at the shoulder (10 mils at 100 yards) appears in your scope to stand two dots high. Divide two into 10, and you come up with five--so the buck is at 500 yards. You can also divide target size in yards (in this case, one) by the number of mils subtended (two) and multiply by 1,000 to get range in yards.

A mil dot reticle must be calibrated for a single magnification. In variable scopes, it's usually the top-end magnification or 10X, but some sights with very high magnification are calibrated at other settings.

After a bit of practice, a mil dot is easy to use. In it you have both a rangefinder and a way to compensate for holdover and drift.

The new Zeiss Rapid-Z reticle is a plex reticle with a ladder of horizontal bars on its lower leg. The short bars extend out to some point in space that marks bullet drift in 21⁄2 mph wind. Aim with the end of the long bars, and you've compensated for 10 mph wind. Hash marks on the long bars correspond to bullet deflection in a 5 mph wind. Naturally, you must know how fast and from which direction the wind is to make these bars pay off.

More useful to me is the reticle's vertical spacing, calculated to indicate bullet impact in 100-yard increments. The Rapid-Z 600 has four bars below center. The Rapid-Z 800 and 1000 have more bars.

I recently fitted a Victory Diarange 3-12x56 with Rapid-Z 600 to a Savage Model 16 in 7mm WSM. I zeroed at 200 yards, then held an inch low for my first shot at the 100-yard target. The bullet struck right next to my final zero shot.

Because the 7mm WSM could not be assumed to match the trajectory data loaded in the Diarange (you can tailor this scope to your ammo), I allowed myself one preliminary shot at each distance from 300 yards out. My record bullet at 300 struck a couple of inches low and wide enough to four o'clock to indicate a wind gust.

At 400 yards the record bullet landed low in the 10-ring. At 500 yards, using the Diarange bars, I held the length of my arm into the wind. My record round landed 1/2 inch from the target's center--closer than had the 100- and 200-yard shots. In sum, my five-shot group, fired at 100-yard increments from 100 to 500, measured less than four inches. The Rapid-Z works.

Today's long-range reticles have left a generation thinking that distant hits are impossible with standard crosswires. Not so. If the reticle is fine enough to give you a clear view of your target, it will allow you to hit that target. However, the prerequisites of estimating range and holdover are acquired skills, and it's easier if your reticle helps. •