Mil-Dot, what is the real answer?

Steve David

Steve David

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Ok, so maybe some of you dealers can put this Mil-Dot ship to Canada issue to rest once and for all. I know that there is a lot of talk going around about how they cannot be shipped out of the US, yet we see them coming into Canada all the time. I know the Bushnell 3200 10X and a few other 3200 and 4200's with Mil-Dot reticles continue to come to Canada and I spoke to a Distributor here in Ontario and they told me in regards to Leupold, only the Mark 4 line requires LE/Gov. letter head, what the heck is the real story?:confused:
 
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Steve David said:
Ok, so maybe some of you dealers can put this Mil-Dot ship to Canada issue to rest once and for all. I know that there is a lot of talk going around about how they cannot be shipped out of the US, yet we see them coming into Canada all the time. I know the Bushnell 3200 10X and a few other 3200 and 4200's with Mil-Dot reticles continue to come to Canada and I spoke to a Distributor here in Ontario and they told me in regards to Leupold, only the Mark 4 line requires LE/Gov. letter head, what the heck is the real story?:confused:
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The US State Depatrment no longer considers all mil dot reticles to be military use. However some scopes are considered dual use, or military use items, if so they require state dept approval for export, otherwise only commerce dept approval is required.
 
Its kind of silly really.

A "mil-dot" scope is often interpreted as "military dot". In fact, it is a "miliradian-dot" scope.

1 miliradian is equal to 1 meter of width at a kilometer's distance. Therefore, a 2 meter tall target appears to be 2 mils tall at 1 km, 4 mils tall at 500m, and 8 mils tall at 250m.

If a "mil-dot" is restricted from import export, then the same logic should/would apply to the aimpoint 4 mil dot scope, or the Eotech 1 mil dot/65 mil circle.

In short, its just a protractor built into the scope.


IMO, saying it is a military use only item is like saying a protractor is a military use only item.
 
I just had a conversation with Zeiss about Mil-Dot reticles. Zeiss is out of stock here in the US and are awaiting the approval of the new paperwork from Europe to import it as it is considered a sniper (this was the word they used when explaining this to me) reticle and now has new controls.
 
Ah, the paranoia of a big govt. Some scope companies are given their reticles 'kinder/gentler' names and are being approved.

We just have to work on a case by case basis. Some scopes are on the $hit list, others aren't. Some companies can't be bothered with our markets, some are willing to change their paperwork.

Jerry
 
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