Scope-ing nested mc's and the /target paths that love them

MY QUESTION: is there a way to scope instances that haven’t been instanced in the first frame of the movie?

I got brave and nested my btn_mc clips inside a nav_mc.

On an action layer in the first frame of my timeline I have:

_root.nav_mc.btn1_mc.gotoAndPlay(“start”);

for example.

In the nav_mc timeline this works if and ONLY if the btn1_mc instance is on the first frame of the nav_mc timeline.

I’m trying to update my skillz and put everything in the first frame of the root timeline rather than doing the backasswards syntax on the mc itself this (onPress) which really confused me for about five years.

Is that ever acceptable (i mean not in a best practices sense but in a 85% solution sense). I’m so down with hacks and kludges if I can get away with it.

/Eval !!!