[Madison]

Can anyone explain how eye relief works? Iv never personally used a rifle with eye relief besides the cheezy little plastic cup, so i was wondering how it would work besides that, Does the lens peice telescope or something?

 

[Jeff_850]

its the distance from the scope that you can see the best out of the lens
look through a scope you will know what i mean

 

[Jeffvn]

Some scope manufacturers specify an optimum eye relief (distance of the eye from the rear lens of the scope) - for example my US Optics is something like 1.5 inches (to make it easy, I put a small piece of tape on the stock that I can just see out of the corner of my eye when my face is in the perfect spot). Placing your eye either further back or closer to the rear lens of the scope than the optimum distance generally results in either a degredation of the view through the scope or a nice little scar on your eyebrow where the scope came back and smacked you in the face during recoil because you were too close.

Fear not, during our first week in sniper school nearly 1/2 our class drew blood from creeping up on the scope trying to get a better/closer look :wink:

 

[Jeff_850]

is this the dreaded scope eye ive herd about?

 

[Madison]

Ahh i thought it would be the "eye shroud" type thing they do for BB gun competitions so the light doesnt bounce off the lens.

 

[badshot]

yes that would be scope eye and can be very embarrassing.

 

[Jeff_850]

ya id be embarrassed if it happend to me

 

[mele]

Yes, optiminum eye relief is generally about 3-4", this allows for the recoil of the rifle (yep, to prevent that scope eye). It would be ugly if you had to put you eye up to the scope like a spotting scope....

MEL

 

[Jeff_850]

at 3-4" eye relief if the stock is tight into your shoulder what are the chances of getting this dreaded scope eye?

 

[badshot]

There is a chance of getting scope eye every time it goes BANG. I know os a couple people that are almost or are 60 years old and have been the same old 30-30's they got as kids and I have seen them come home with a deer in the back of the truck and a nice cut on their eye. They still catch hell for it ever now and then. I have been lucky so far to not have had this happen. But my turn is coming.

 

[Jeffvn]

Sooner or later we all get it by the scope. My littel piece of tape reminds me toget me face in the right spot. No scope eye since I went with the low tech tape fix ....... so far anyway. :lol:

 

[mele]

with a heavy tactical rifle in .308, the chances are slim. One easy trick is this, be sure there is no scope shadow. If there is no shadow in your site picture, you know you are in the optimal eye relief range. Of course, cheek weld is critical for accurate shooting, it has to be the same no matter what. So, if all the pieces are coming together, same cheek weld everytime, which will be where you have perfect scope picture, which is where you have perfect eye relief, etc, then you should be fine.

Another thing to do, is when mounting your scope, get in your firing position and move the scope as far forward as you can, then move it back until you get complete scope picture, and thats where you mount it at. This means you will be at the BACK of the optimal eye relief range. (it usually covers .5 - 1" of distance (i.e. 3.5-4", etc. Read your scope manual to find out what it is if you are interested). Also, if you ware doing this with a variable power scope, do it at the highest magnification, which usually has the shortest eye relief range. Otherwise, you wont get complete scope picture at high mag.

MEL

 

[SpEcTeR]

I personally haven't had this happen to me but its a funny thought, to think that everyone has their turn sometime. :lol: Or a painfull one. :roll:

 

[Jake S]

Yep everyone'll get it eventually. I personally have only gotten a scope cut from the Burris on my cousin's practically non-recoiling 7mm-08! But the stock on the Rem model 7 was just a tad short for me to shoot comfortably off the bench! But that wasn't my rifle, and my cousin is a bit smaller than I am, so the eye relief was perfect for her, just not me. So be careful when you moubt your scope, and you'll be fine!

Jake