Documentation · 03

Units & Conventions

Imperial or metric, MOA or mil, and what every field expects. Switching units changes how a value is shown, never the value that was stored.

LoadOut 1.1·Updated September 2026

Documentation
  1. 01Platforms & Requirements
  2. 02Free vs Pro
  3. 03Units & Conventions
  4. 04Ballistics Inputs & the Solver
  5. 05Data Model
  6. 06Device Support
  7. 07File Formats & Sharing
  8. 08Reference Catalogs & Attribution
  9. 09Privacy Reference
  10. 10Siri Voice Command Reference
  11. 11Companion Watch Reference
  12. 12Glossary
On this page

LoadOut keeps one set of numbers and shows them in the units you choose. Pick a system, override any single category, and choose your angular unit separately, because a metric shooter with a MOA turret is not a contradiction.

Choosing units

  1. Open Settings General. The Units row switches the whole app between Imperial and Metric.
  2. Override a category. Under the Units row, each of the eleven categories can be set on its own: range, muzzle velocity, bullet weight, bullet diameter, drop and sight height, angle, temperature, pressure, altitude, wind velocity, and energy. A metric shooter who thinks of velocity in feet per second sets just that one.
  3. Choose your angular unit. The Angle row is separate from the system: MOA or MRAD, whichever your turrets and reticle use. Every hold, every DOPE table, every Target Card, and every spoken solution follows it.

Your choice applies everywhere at once: forms, the solver, Range Day, exports, and the watch. Change it any time; nothing is recalculated because nothing was stored in display units.

The unit table

QuantityImperialMetricUsed for
RangeydmTarget distance, zero range, DOPE rows, ranges on the watch
Muzzle velocityfpsm/sMuzzle velocity, chronograph strings, velocity at range
Bullet weightgrgBullet weight; powder charges are always in grains, as load data publishes them
Drop & sight heightincmBullet length, COAL and CBTO, sight height, shoulder bump, neck wall, barrel length
Bullet diameterinmmBullet diameter
AngleMRAD (mil)MRAD (mil)Holds, come-ups, group size, reticle subtensions
Temperature°F°CEnvironment, powder reference temperature
PressureinHghPaThe pressure at your position, not corrected to sea level
AltitudeftmStation altitude, density altitude
Wind velocitymphm/sWind calls, meter readings; km/h is a third option
Energyft-lbsJEnergy at range, energy thresholds in Full Analytics

MOA and mil

A minute of angle is 1/60 of a degree: 1.047 in at 100 yd, which most shooters round to an inch. A milliradian is 1/1000 of a radian: 3.6 in at 100 yd, or 10 cm at 100 m. One mil is 3.438 MOA. Neither is more accurate than the other; what matters is that your turrets, your reticle, and your app agree.

At 100 ydMOAMil
One unit subtends1.047 in3.6 in
Typical click1/4 MOA (0.26 in)0.1 mil (0.36 in)
Ten clicks2.5 MOA (2.6 in)1.0 mil (3.6 in)
ConvertMOA × 0.2909 = milmil × 3.438 = MOA

The MOA ↔ MIL Converter under Tools & Resources converts between the two and to a size at any distance, and the Reference tab there keeps the subtension table for the ranges you shoot.

How values are stored

Every number is stored once, in a canonical unit, and converted for display. Type a muzzle velocity in metres per second and a shooter opening the same profile in feet per second sees the same speed. Changing the Units setting therefore never edits a record; it changes the labels and the arithmetic in front of them. Exports carry the stored values with their units named, so a spreadsheet never has to guess.

Field conventions

Twist rate
Written as one turn in so many inches, 1:8 or 1:10, as your barrel maker states it. It feeds spin drift and the stability check.
Twist direction
Pre-filled Right as a starting default, and disclosed as such until you set it; almost every rifle barrel is right-hand twist, and the solver needs a direction to place spin drift.
Sight height
The distance from the centre of the bore to the centre of the scope, in the small-length unit. New firearms start at 2.0 in; measure yours.
Zero range
The distance your rifle is zeroed at. New firearms start at 100 yd.
Ballistic coefficient
Dimensionless, and only meaningful with its drag model: a G7 value and a G1 value for the same bullet differ by roughly half. LoadOut stores the model beside the number.
Station pressure
The pressure where you stand, as a weather meter reads it. Do not enter a forecast's sea-level pressure; leave the field blank instead and the solver uses the standard atmosphere and says so.
Density altitude
Never typed. LoadOut works it out from temperature, station pressure, humidity, and station altitude, and shows it beside them.
Wind
A speed and a direction relative to your line of fire, as you call it. Wind starts empty and stays empty until you enter it; the app never invents a breeze to look useful.
COAL and CBTO
Cartridge overall length is base to bullet tip; base to ogive is base to a fixed point on the ogive, measured with a comparator. Enter whichever your notes use; the form takes both.
Dates
Shown in your device's own format and time zone. Shots logged from a watch carry the moment the shot broke, not the moment it reached the phone.

What a blank field means

A blank ballistics field is never quietly filled in. Bullet and rifle fields with no value stop the solution and are named on the card under it. Environment fields with no value fall back to the ICAO standard atmosphere, and the solution says "Using ICAO standard atmosphere" for as long as that is true. Four starting defaults are the deliberate exceptions, each disclosed on screen until you change it: a 100 yd zero range, a 2.0 in sight height, a right-hand twist direction, and a 1.0 MOA shooter capability on the hit-probability surfaces.

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