Gunsight and reticle therefor

A reticle for use in a telescopic gunsight including a mount for mounting said gunsight in a fixed, predetermined position relative to a gun barrel, said reticle having an optical center and comprising:

• a primary vertical cross-hair spanning said reticle and having a predetermined thickness intersecting the optical center of the reticle;
• a primary horizontal cross-hair spanning said reticle and having a predetermined thickness intersecting said primary vertical cross-hair to form an upper right quadrant, an upper left quadrant, a lower left quadrant, and a lower right quadrant;
• a plurality of secondary horizontal cross-hairs having a predetermined thickness evenly spaced along and intersecting said primary vertical cross-hair, each said secondary horizontal cross-hair forming an aiming point with said primary vertical cross-hair, each of said secondary horizontal cross-hairs being shorter than said primary horizontal cross-hair;
• a plurality of secondary vertical cross-hairs having predetermined thickness evenly spaced along at least some of said secondary horizontal cross-hairs, each said secondary vertical cross-hair forming an aiming point with said secondary horizontal cross-hairs, each said secondary vertical cross-hair being shorter than said primary vertical cross-hair;
• and,
• a rangefinding means positioned in one of said quadrants.

A method for hitting a target of known or estimable size with a bullet fired from a firearm at a range in excess of 500 yards, using a telescopic gunsight mounted to the firearm, the telescopic gunsight having a reticle with an optical center, a primary vertical cross-hair intersecting the optical center of the reticle, a primary horizontal cross-hair intersecting said primary vertical cross-hair at a position above the optical center, when said gunsight is mounted to the firearm, to form an upper right quadrant, an upper left quadrant, a lower left quadrant, and a lower right quadrant, a plurality of secondary horizontal cross-hairs evenly spaced along said primary vertical cross-hair, a plurality of secondary vertical cross-hairs evenly spaced along at least some of said secondary horizontal cross-hairs, unique identifying markings associated with at least some of said secondary horizontal cross-hairs, and an optical rangefinder positioned in one of said quadrants, said method comprising the steps of:

• locating a target of known or estimable actual size at a range in excess of 500 yards;
• determining the number of evenly spaced, scaled markings on the rangefinder which span the target area, to determine an observed size;
• calculating range to the target using the relationship between the actual size and the observed size;
• selecting from said primary and secondary horizontal cross-hairs a horizontal cross-hair which has been predetermined to correlate to the calculated range;
• selecting as an aiming point on the selected horizontal cross-hair the intersection between the selected horizontal cross-hair and a vertical cross-hair based upon windage considerations;
• aligning the center of the target with the selected aiming point;
• and, shooting at the target.