Imagine you are a shooting enthusiast and love handling rifles. What would you do if you were having difficulty setting up a scope on the rifle, and facing problems aiming at a certain target?
The answer is: you would have to have an angle inclinometer to correctly take advantage of the scope of your rifle.
Do you know what a rifle scope inclinometer is? If not, then keep reading this article, we are going to tell you all about rifle scope inclinometers and how they work.
Also, you will get to know how you can take advantage of them as a professional shooter.
Inclinometer: What Is It?
Simply put, if you want to measure the tilt of a slope or the inclined angle of slope, you use an angle inclinometer tool to pull off the job. Especially when shooting at extremely steep angles, inclinometers are tools of blessing.
Generally, you will see inclinometers being mounted on the top of the scope (or sometimes on the side of the scope).
Preferably, it works better when mounted on the side of the scope because that way, you don’t have to move it around for each shot.
Now that you know what an inclinometer is, we suggest you get acquainted with a few other terms as well for a better understanding: Angle Cosine Indicator (ACI), Bubble Levels Indicator.
So, go through the rest of this article.
Angle Cosine Indicator (ACI): What Is It?
An angle cosine indicator is a tool for measuring the distance that the bullet will travel. In order to determine this, the Angle Cosine Indicator (ACI) calculates and combines the data of straight line distance and horizontal path.
By taking advantage of measuring the distance of the bullet’s path, a shooter is easily able to avoid aiming excessively high. It is done by keeping the focus on the diagonal distance.
Or, the shooters can also avoid aiming excessively low. It is done by keeping the focus on the horizontal distance indication of the Angle Cosine Indicator.
Angle Cosine Indicator (ACI): How Does It Work?
The job of ACI is to offer you a cosine value of the projected shots’ angle. You can then multiply the cosine value with the actual distance of slope for your shot.
As a result, you will get a final value that you can use to make adjustments to the elevation of the rifles’ scope.
You might need a scope ring to attach the ACI to the scope of your rifle. ACIs are not costly at all. In fact, you can purchase them for as low as $16 and also for up to $150 (premium ones).
Bubble Levels Indicator: What Is It?
Bubble levels indicator is a tool that helps you in long-range shooting so that you don’t have to face the problem of canting. As you may know, canting is the magnitude of how much your rifle moves when taking a shot.
When you are taking long-range shots, even as little as a single degree of canting can massively throw you off your aim.
Thus, the Bubble Levels Indicator helps you to adjust the center of your rifle, and it’s shot. This tool is a kind of mandatory tool for shooting on flatter terrains.
Taking Advantage of Bubble Level Indicator by Using It with Inclinometers
If you can use a bubble level indicator in combination with an inclinometer, you can achieve higher level accuracy in your shots.
Using the inclinometer in unison with the bubble level indicator facilitates instant and reliable adjustment of the scope.
And, your shooting gears become much more efficient in their performance as you achieve higher accuracy and a high rate of bull’s eye in your target practice.
Using Your Smartphone as an Angle Degree Indicator for Your Rifle
If you use an iPhone or an Android, you can use your phone as an angle degree indicator (inclinometer) too.
You can look for compass apps in the App Store or Play Store and use them in unison with other ballistic apps such as KAC BulletFlight, The Applied Ballistics Mobile Application, etc.
Your ballistic apps, used with the combination of inclinometer apps, can provide you these features:
- Quick determination of the equation of motion
- Having access to a database of past shot adjustment data
- Determination of gravity curve in the time of shooting at an inclined or declined position
- Access to your weapon’s profile information including the rifle’s basic info and info on necessary-to-use optics.
- Access to information on ammunition types: which type of bullets to use in different situations along with their ballistic information
- Easy calculation of distance for the projected target
- Fast evaluation of angle of slope
- Info on atmospheric conditions that might affect the trajectory path of the bullet: weather temperature, speed of wind and altitude, etc.
You can easily mount your phone on your rifle, so no miscalculations are occurring when taking the shot. You can also manually input the angle of shot into your rifle scope, but that leaves a chance of a mistake.
Shooting Is Even More Fun Now!!
As you can see in the above discussion, you can take help from multiple devices like inclinometers, ACIs, and your smartphone during shooting practice.
So, your aim is easily kept accurate, and your shooting performance is highly boosted even in steep angle situations.
To help you further your target practice pleasure, there are a bunch of apps for your smartphone that can ease the shooting practice for you.
Because you have a bunch of tools to help you now, it doesn’t matter which kind of terrain you practice on, you are bound to have an accurate aim no.
Frequently Asked Questions
#1. Who Uses an Inclinometer?
An inclinometer is a tool that measures the angle of slope and the vertical elevation or depression of a subject relative to gravity, it is used by shooters and construction engineers worldwide.
#2. What Does the Term AO Mean in the Field of Rifle Scopes?
AO is an acronym for the full term “adjustable objectives”.
#3. How Much Eye Relief is Better?
When using a scope in your rifle, the more magnification you apply in your scope, the less amount of eye relief it provides. In the case of Magnum rifles scopes, you have to give high priority to eye relief to achieve accurate shots.
#4. What Will Happen If the Scope is Not at the Correct Level?
If you have an incorrect level of scope, it is common to see the reticles being distracted in the cant. As a result, you’ll have an inaccurate aim in your target practice.
But keeping your scope at an accurate level is not hard at all. You just have to mount your magnified scope, focus and set the right amount of eye relief, simply attach appropriate rings to the rifle and torque screws. You’re good to go.
Concluding Words
In the above discussion, we have tried to cover essential information that one might need to know about inclinometers, Angle Degree Indicators (ADI), Angle Cosine Indicator (ACI), and bubble level indicators.
You need to have a clear understanding of these subjects in order to achieve professional-level accuracy in target practice and shooting.
We hope, using the information in this article, you can excel in your shooting practice. Best of luck to you.