What many people do not initially understand about the Trilase device is that it works independently of the scope optical system.

Actually when you are using the Trilase device you have two separate optical devices at your disposal. First you have your LOS ‘line of sight’ aim-point optical system – the rifle scope. Second you have a triple laser optical system – the Trilase. The two devices work independently of each other. The laser triangle aim-point pattern is designed to be viewed through the rifle scope. However, the Trilase system would work equally well for range finding if the laser triangle aim-point pattern were viewed through separate pair of binoculars during activation. Obviously this is not practical compared with viewing it through the rifle scope. Since the laser aim-point pattern can easily be viewed whilst looking through the rifle scope at the same time as activating the Trilase’s pressure switch.

So what does it mean for the shooter using the Trilase, that they now have two optical devices rather than one? Firstly it means that the rifle scope can be freely adjusted without affecting the Trilase range finding. The magnification can be freely altered. This is unlike the bracketing and mil-dot methods that are dependent on the magnification setting of the scope, unless of course you are using a new First Focal Plane scope. When using the Trilase the user can always crank up the magnification on the scope to view the laser pattern more easily on the terrain.

What you ultimately have when using the Trilase system with a scope, is four aim points rather than one. For clarity a shooter should only use the aim-point of the scope reticle LOS, for aiming whilst shooting. However, in practice each laser is also independently calibrated, so could also be considered to produce extra aim-points. Here we are defining an aim-point as a straight line from the shooter to the target that can be calibrated.

People should be aware that in second focal plane scopes, the difference in the distance between the mildots is dependent on both the range of the target and the magnification setting of the scope. It is actually far easier to use a Trilase to judge range, than by using the reticle. To range find using the Trilase the laser pattern is simply viewed on the terrain through the scope. It could be considered that mildots gives an artificial sense of security that the hold over adjustment that people are making is correct and that the mildots overly interfere with the sight picture. It might be a better technique to use a fine duplex reticle over the effective range with a basic hold over technique to achieve good accuracy especially in short to medium long ranges with holdovers of say an less than inch.

For the Trilase user, the mildot scope reticles could interfere with the laser aim-point pattern. Reticles such as the MOA that have been developed offer the best of both worlds, extra aim-point references together without interfering with the laser aim-points pattern of the Trilase or the sight picture. From a minimalist attitude it is difficult to beat the traditional fine duplex reticle it is still widely considered to be one of the best reticle types.

Is it really more difficult to make holdover compensation by viewing the actual target and aiming high or low using a duplex reticle type? Here at Beamtek we feel that using mildots or moa tick marks to aim is an inaccurate method for aiming. Who is to say that a dot or tick is exactly where the pellet will fall at a certain range. The compensation provided by a dot or tick is affected by both range and magnification settings for most scope types. It is our opinion that the dots and ticks in practise are little more than a distraction and that the only part of the reticle of any relevance for aiming is the center of the reticle and holdover should be made from this point either aiming high or low. Admittedly the ticks of a MOA reticle can be handy to visualize the center of the reticle when it cannot easily be seen because it is obscured by bad light.

It is of course possible to dial a scope elavation turret to make valid trajectory compensations, the scope can then be aimed by using only the center of the reticle instead of using hold compensations.

The Trilase can work well with dialing scope turrets for elevation and windage. This is done by comparing the changed position of the reticle to the center of the laser pattern. This is because the center of the laser pattern always represents the ‘zeroed’ line of sight of the scope&rifle. So when dialing for range and windage the Trilase laser pattern can be used as a visual reference to see the size of compensation made by the changed reticle position. The number clicks then becomes arbitrary as it is all visualized by the shooter on the target. Once the shooter is finished the turret can be dialed so that the centre reticle again matches the centre of the laser pattern. This is actually easier than using standard clicks method on the scope to make trajectory adjustments as no calculation is required once the holdover is known. For example for target shooting, say half an inch hold over is known to be required at said distance, the scope elevation turret could be dialed so that the reticle is half an inch below the center of the laser pattern. The shooter can then deactivate the Trilase and shoot on the center of the reticle at will, assuming parallax has already been dialled in. Once the shooter has finished with shooting the target; the shooter could just reactivate the Trilase and then readjust the turret so that the reticle again lies in the centre of the laser pattern, the scope is then back to the original zero position. The Trilase shooter could do all this without even observing the clicks number on the turret and could effectively then ignore this. The point of this being that the air rifle shooter simplifies the method of trajectory compensation into just required hold compensation as a distance at said range, and does not need to concern themselves with clicks or mildot positions.

It is nice to aim on the center of the reticle and this might be advantageous to dial the turrets for say target shooting, but in all convenience it is just quicker to make a hold trajectory compensation and it is no less accurate.

We would argue that it is better to visualize the adjustment to be made on the target and aim high or low. For example it you know a half inch trajectory compensation is required, either from using the Trilase or some other method, then it is simple and accurate to aim either a half inch low or high or whatever else is required. In fact when using the Trilase the shooter is always aware that the compensation is not exactly at zero range or not exactly half an inch high or low, but a little more or a little less etc., because the change in the size of the laser pattern is continuous and in practice a target is never going to be at a practiced range.

The only important thing when it come to trajectory compensation is: – What is the distance of the trajectory compensation required at the target’s range before taking the shot. Once a shooter knows this they have all they need to make an accurate trajectory compensation.

The Trilase is a perfectly effective method for finding this figure. The shooter knows the distance of the trajectory adjustment to be made using the Trilase because they compare the size of the laser pattern they see on the target, to known trajectory compensations associated with certain laser pattern orientations and sizes. The Trilase shooter knows the pattern sizes at the first and primary zero ranges where no trajectory adjustment is required. The Trilase shooter also knows the required trajectory compensation at the maximum ordinate range, as they found this when they zeroed the rifle. They also have a fair idea of the laser pattern size when the pellet falls an inch low either before the first zero range or after the main zero range. We tend to think in inches when it comes to trajectory but perhaps some people think in metric.

Now it can be seen how the Trilase shooter can view the laser pattern at any target and know what the trajectory compensation is going to be, because they see where it falls in size between these known laser pattern sizes and so they know what the trajectory adjustment will be as a measure of distance. For example if the pattern is upside down and half the size of the pattern at the zero range then the trajectory adjustment will be very close to half what it is at the maximum ordinate. This is quite easy to remember and by comparison a user of the hand held laser range finder still needs to remember what the trajectory adjustment will be at each range for the rifle they are using. When using a Trilase there is less to remember and it is quicker to use. This is so because the Trilase shooter only really needs to remember three bits of information for any rifle or scope and these are found during zeroing; 1 the trajectory adjustment at the maximum ordinate 2 & 3 the size of the pattern at the first and main zero ranges, this is the case because any competent shooter has a pretty good idea of the trajectory of their rifle type and ammunition. Both methods work and the hand held laser rangefinder is essential for extreme long distance shooting, we are not even going to discuss why people are attempting these shots.

Once the trajectory compensation is known the method used to make the trajectory adjustment is actually not very important, be it hold compensation or dialing a scope. Hold compensation is just quicker and easier if only one shot is to be made, rather than dialing a scope for convenience. However, the chances that a mildot or tick is going to be in the right place is just plain unlikely. So you have to ask what is the point of shooting using this method, especially if a shooter starts saying ‘it is going to be somewhere between two dots or ticks at said magnification and range’ or something like that. It starts to get really murky and why bother with that aiming method at all. Why not stick with a much better method like, it will be half an inch high or half an inch low at such and such a range. That is obviously a better method of shooting for everyone. The truth is that mildots are really designed for the military, not for air guns and are used for shooting very long distances, like hundreds of yards, when no other method of range finding method is available. Luckily for air gun shooters, lasers can be used over the ranges that we shoot even in full sun and using lasers for range finding is far quicker, easier and requires little mental calculation compared with the mildot or bracketing method for range finding.

So what is the extra advantage of having four aim-points rather than one? In practice a shooter using the Trilase system and a rifle scope can be four times more certain that the zero point of the scope is correct. Or that the LOS is correctly aligned with the ballistics of the rifle without even firing it. This advantage of the Trilase system; is that it is a protection against scope zero wander. If the scope and the Trilase aim point laser dots are all in alignment at the MO ‘maximum ordinate range’, then the shooter can be fairly certain that the scope LOS is still in correct alignment with the zero point of the rifle. The Trilase, rifle and scope can be used and stored for long periods without a zero shift so this can be a useful check.

The Trilase system can make up for many problems shooters may have with basic rifle scopes. For example a traditional front parallax adjustable AO rifle scope, with good optical clarity can work very well with a Trilase. To do this the parallax setting is set fixed to around 35 meters suitable for air rifles and the magnification setting is freely adjusted in use whenever required. Zoom rarely affects zero. Parallax error is then eliminated by use of the Trilase. This can be useful to prevent parallax zero wander that is not supposed to occur, but often does with cheap rifle scopes.

The Trilase can be used with modern examples of rifle scopes such as side focus parallax adjustable scopes with good effect.

There are many problems with a rifle scopes that a Trilase user might become aware of. Such as; parallax error, tracking issues, zero point shift with changes in the parallax setting.

In finishing, a good description of the Trilase is a ‘Laser Ballistic Alignment Device.’ Three laser lasers are being aligned with the ballistics of a rifle projectile, when shooting flat with no extremes of environment. Since shooting is essentially about alignment, that is aligning the LOS with the ballistics of a rifle projectile. It can be appreciated how useful the Trilase is to a shooter.

Activating the Trilase can become an almost second nature reflex in use, because the shooter gets so habituated to using it. A shooter can get accustomed to how the laser pattern produced corresponds to the trajectory that they barely need to think about it. It is actually quite obvious how the laser pattern corresponds to the trajectory; really it is as simple as ‘bigger pattern lower smaller pattern higher’. See the Beamtek animation to see this effect.

So the air rifle shooter using the Trilase could start to feel that: The effect of range on trajectory for air rifles is not a big a deal as they did before. That wind is far more of an issue for air rifles than trajectory. A hand held laser range finder is overkill for normal short to medium range air rifle shooting. In fact it could be said that a air rifle shooter familar with a Trilase is going to be confident that they are hardly ever going to miss because of the effects of trajectory. Shots they could not make before becomes possible, such as close up shots and fast shots where there is no time, especially when using a fixed parallax scope.