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) a primary vertical cross-hair having a predetermined thickness;
• (b) a primary horizontal cross-hair 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;
• (c) a plurality of secondary horizontal cross-hairs having predetermined thickness evenly spaced a predetermined distance 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;
• (d) a plurality of secondary vertical cross-hairs having predetermined thickness evenly spaced a predetermined distance 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,
• (e) rangefinding markings.

A method for hitting a target of known or estimable size with a bullet fired from a firearm using a telescopic gunsight mounted to the firearm, the telescopic gunsight having a reticle with an optical center and a plurality of aiming points, a primary vertical cross-hair, a primary horizontal cross-hair 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 intersecting and evenly spaced a predetermined distance along said primary vertical cross-hair, a plurality of secondary vertical cross-hairs intersecting and evenly spaced a predetermined distance along at least some of said secondary horizontal cross-hairs, each intersecting cross-hair forming one of the plurality of aiming points, unique identifying markings associated with at least some of said secondary horizontal cross-hairs, and an optical rangefinder, said method comprising the steps of:

• (a) locating a target of known or estimable actual size;
• (b) determining the number of evenly spaced, scaled markings on the rangefinder which span the target area, to determine an observed size;
• (c) calculating range to the target using the relationship between the actual size and the observed size;
• (d) selecting from said primary and secondary horizontal cross-hairs a horizontal cross-hair which has been predetermined to correlate to the calculated range;
• (e) 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 on windage considerations;
• (f) aligning said selected aiming point with a center of said target;
• and,
• (g) shooting at the target.