Eye relife?

[andy_o]

I was noticeing that when I turn up my power on my scope that the scope needs to be almost on my eye to see through it without looking through a hole the size of a dime. I was wondering if it was just my scope or if it was the amount of eye relife I have. It is perfect of 3-5 but from 6-9 if my eye is not just about sitting on the glass you cant see much of anything through it. Im using a redfeild 3x9 on a 7mm rem mag. The recoil does not allow my eye to be that close to the scope. I was wondering how to fix this or if I should just get a new scope with more eye relife.

[Goodguy]

Sounds like a pretty dangerous situation you've got going on there. Eye relief will decrease with higher magification except on the most expensive scopes (Swarovski etc), however the situation you describe is extreme an unacceptable. You need to go scope shopping. gg

[thndrchiken]

Usually when mounting the scope I will set it at the highest magnification to set the eye relief, so when it's at the lower settings it's not a problem. I have found Leupolds to be very consistant eye relief throughout the magnifcation range.

[stubblejumper]

I have found Leupolds to be very consistant eye relief throughout the magnifcation range.

Check the leupold website and you will find that with the exception of the lps series leupold variable scopes have eye relief that changes from about 1" to 1-1/2" from minimum to maximum power.Scopes from many other manufacturers have constant eye relief throughout the power range.

[skeeter 7MM]

I would suggest first off to try adjusting how it is mounted, as suggested try it at the highest mag setting and have someone move it until you have both a clear picture and some eye room. Another thing to consider is the mount height, it is possible that it is mounted to high or low for your shooting position and when turning up the power it makes the sight picture smaller/disorted.

Eye relief could also be the problem I would look for a scope that would be in 3.5" range at the high setting for the 7 rem mag.

I agree with SJ that Loopy doesn't not maintain it's eyerelief on most models through magnification, however in most case at the highest setting the loopy will afford as much as and in many cases more than the other scopes that offer constant eye relief. As such leupolds are generally regarded as one of the most generous in this department, this might have been what thunder was referring too in his post.

[diyj98]

I've also found Leupolds to have minimum change in eye relief when changing the power. Part of that may be the fact that Leupolds have such a large amount of eye relief compared to most other brands, any change in relief isn't really noticed.

[schunter1128]

Just checked the Leupold site and the new VXIII still has a variable eye relief. 4.4"(3x) - 3.5"(10x). I thought they were going to a fixed eye relief?[&o]

[oldelkhunter]

Set your eye relief at highest power if it doesn't come close to 3 and 3 1/2 being a better number then find a new scope. No US manufacturer of scopes other then Euro scopes have a fixed eye relief. In practical terms it makes no difference I would rather have a scope with almost 5" of eye relief when dealing with a 338(leupold 2.5x8 VX-III) albeit it at low powers then a scope that has 3.5 to begin with and may go as low as 3.00 . I don't usually play with the power ring when putting an animal in the crosshairs I look at the animal first and dial the power range right there if it is going to be a long shot if not I usually have a variable set to middle range and keep it there. Why I don't use a 4x or 6x doesn't make any sense since those are the powers I usually use anyway. That effectively rules out the so-called loss of "CheekWeld" that is overused these days.

[Nomercy]

In theory, when you double your magnification, you cut your "visible" diameter/FOV in half....now, when you go from 4x to 8x, that doesn't necessarily mean you're doubling your magnification, because for the most part, "x" doesn't mean 2x=twice as magnified, it's just kind of a loosely held standard that isn't even constant between manufacturers.

Regardless of what "x" does mean, if you increase your magnification, or increase the range at which you're focused, you make your visible diameter smaller (your eye does the same thing, when you're focused up close, your iris' are wide open, when you focus in far away, they close down-they don't just react to light-but this also shows why you can only focus on a limited range in low light, your iris' open to let in enough light to see anything, but then farther ranges become out of focus.)

At any rate, I'm surprised to hear this about a Redfield, usually mid-quality scope manufacturers take into account the eye relief change when designing the lense distances, so you don't wind up needing your eye bulged out into the objective to remove shadows when you're on high mag.

You've got a couple options, you can either risk banging yourself in the eye, put a "relief rubber" on your objective, only use your lower magnification, buy a new scope (my suggestion), or learn to play the shadow well....if you have the shadow in your scope centered, you will be on target, it won't be as easy to see, and you might think your field of view is smaller-it's really not, you still see the same 26yrd wide area in the field, it's just smaller in your scope- but you will be on target-it takes a little practice to get things lined up right, you just have to make sure you've got the same thickness of shadow around the rim.

Like I said, it's going to be better to buy a new scope.

[andy_o]

I had a buddy of mine work with it and now ive got enough. Thanks for the responses.

Andy