Reticle The PrecisionRifleBlog.com (PRB) Reticle is a tactical reticle design with precise 0.2 mil has marks on the primary wind and elevation axes. It features a simple/subtle Christmas tree that allows you to hold-off for elevation and wind. The top half of the field of view is kept clean to make observation and spotting impacts easy. This is a fine reticle intended for long-range precision rifle platforms, but the reticle includes illumination which allows it to be very functional even at lower magnifications.

30x Magnification

15x Magnification

As you dial back the magnification, subtentions 10 mils or more from the center become twice as bold to help you see them at reduced power. Also starting at 10 mils of elevation hold, you will see additional dots on each side of the Christmas tree that extend the wind holds another 5 mils in each direction. This allows the reticle to be useful in up to 20-30 mph winds. While most people won’t be shooting long range in those high winds, you wouldn’t ever be limited by your reticle if you needed to.

5x Magnification

At low magnification, the thicker subtensions allow the reticle to still be useful. Horizontal lines appear every 10 mils of elevation hold to help you quickly index and find the hold you need. Shooters or hunters may prefer to run at lower magnification to maximize their field of view and help them quickly find targets. In those cases, it’s recommended they turn on their illumination even if they aren’t in low light conditions. That helps fine reticles like this be as useful and ideal at 5x as they are at 30x, because it makes the crosshairs extremely high contrast and draw your eye to the center aiming point.

Illumination

The primary elevation and wind crosshairs light up when illuminated to draw your eye to the center. This can be used in both low light conditions or to make the reticle easier to see when dialed down to the lowest magnification. Having a reticle with fine subtentions that can also be illuminated gives you the best of both worlds and can make the scope useful in virtually any situation. The center aiming dot does not illuminate, which keeps the most important part of the reticle is clear, unobscured, and not “blown out” by too much illumination (a problem with some reticles).

Subtensions All measurements below are in milliradian (mils).

PRB Reticle Feature Highlights • 0.2 mil hash marks on primary wind and elevation axis for fine adjustments. Over 90% of the top long range

shooters dial their elevation correction and hold their wind correction, and having 0.2 mil hash marks makes it easy to hold with 0.1 mil of precision, meaning you’re able to get the most from a precision rifle platform.

• Clear, unobstructed view in the top 50% of the field of view to make it easy to spot impacts or use for observation

• Open floating dot in the center makes it easy to get a perfect zero, and doesn’t cover up the most important part of the reticle

• Relatively unobtrusive and simple hold-off grid that’s there if you need it, but not too busy or distracting. It also won’t obstruct the view enough that you could potentially miss spotting impacts. The simple design also shouldn’t intimidate newer shooters that haven’t ever used a Christmas tree reticle. 90% of the top-ranked precision rifle shooters said they prefer to dial for elevation and hold for wind, and only use the Christmas tree hold-offs when they need to make quick shots. That means hold-offs are secondary for most shooters, and when they use it they aren’t looking for “gnat’s ass precision.” So that influenced the decisions on the grid design:

o 0.5 mil hash marks on the hold-off grid (for both elevation and wind holds), which means you’re never more than 0.25 mils from the nearest reference point.

o Really fine marks are visible when you’re looking at them, but not when you are focusing on the primary axis. It’s also very unlikely that you’d miss seeing a bullet impact because it was hidden behind one of those marks.

o + mark used every mil for odd wind holds (e.g. 1, 3), and × mark used to indicate even mils (e.g. 2, 4) to make it quicker to confirm your hold.

o When holding 10 mils of elevation or more, the subtensions become twice as thick to help you see them at reduced magnification. Also once you get past 10 mils of elevation hold, 5 more mils of dot reference points appear on each side to provide additional wind holds.

• To keep the reticle simple and uncluttered, every single dot of ink on the reticle had to fight its way into the design. If something wasn’t useful in real-world scenarios, it didn’t make the cut. That means there aren’t distracting features related to:

o Range estimation: I understand why they teach how to estimate range using your reticle in sniper school, but over the past 5-10 years the use of laser rangefinders has become widespread and virtually no shooters estimate range using their reticle in practical situations. In fact, for long range targets, your hit probability falls near 0% very quickly when milling targets for range estimation. (Read more about that here). You can still use this reticle for range estimation, but there simply aren’t any specialized or distracting features added to the design to make that “quicker,” since almost no shooter will ever use that feature.

o Movers: Some reticles have features for moving targets built-in, but those are only valid for targets at a specific range. I’ve never been in a situation where the distance lined up perfectly to the targets I was engaging.

Note: The PRB reticle design was for conceptual purposes only. PrecisionRifleBlog.com has never performed any kind of clearance search or patentability search, and makes no warranties or representations regarding any information provided regarding this reticle. It is the sole responsibility of the manufacturer to determine whether or not the sale or manufacturing of a scope, including the reticle, violates any laws of the United States or the laws of any other country as may be applicable.