Strut&Rut

bigcountry,

good points. One of the reasons I went with the Burris, I plan on moving in about 1 year (finally done with the last degree at college), and won't know where I'll end up. I slug-gun now, but may soon be slinging a nice bolt-action rifle, and wanted a scope I could mount on the shotgun and still be able to put on a rifle in the future.

Funny though, I never would have thought an extra inch would have mattered unless you were female [8D]

Bilge

One of my buddies found out the hard way that finding yourself shooting from a prone position in the field can put your eyebrow a bit closer to the scope than firing it from the bench. He was wishing he that extra inch of insurance right about then!

mistahmojoryan

Bilge, I think that's the main culprit; prone position. I've even read about Joyce Hornady being knocked unconscious after shooting his 8mm Rem Mag from prone.

jmfa1957

I recently re-mounted an inexpensive Bushnell scope that has been on my Remington 742. For over 20 years I hated this gun because I had those cheap see-through scope mounts, and it never felt right or shot that well for me. I've long since moved on to other bolt action rifles with far better scopes and far better scope mounts.

Anyway, out of boredom, I dumped the old mounts, put a Leupold steel base and rings on the 742, and put the old cheapie scope on it. All of a sudden it looks better, feels better and shoots better (amazing what happens when the screws don't come loose on you!) In any event, this 742 is the mildest recoiling .30-06 that I have (I own four rilfes in this caliber.) After re-mounting the scope I fiddled with the position until I thought I had the eye relief just about right. When I got it to the range, it whacked me in the nose hard enough to draw blood. Needless to say this was embarassing. I am probably going to upgrade to a better scope and relegate the cheapie to my son's .22; when I do, eye relief will definitely be a consideration.

Once you get a bloody nose in public, you start thinking about things like this.

White-tail-deer

A wise man once told me, "It's good to learn from your mistake, but even better to learn from some one elses mistake!!

Eye relief is number one on my list when thinking about buying a scope. I wacked by eye brow once with a cheap scope, Notice I wrote "once".

stubblejumper

Since most "quality scope makers" offer adequate eye relief,I put a lot more consideration into lenses and coatings,durability and weight when choosing a scope.

Bilge

That's a good one! I think I'll use that quote myself if you don't mind...and even if you do...hehe!

Back to the topic, is there a way to determine the minimum eye relief for a given rifle/cartrige combo?

G2 Shooter

Several comments have already been made but I'll throw in my $0.02.

I have bought several "cheap" scopes in the past and have kicked myself for doing so. Got dinged a few times either from the scope bezel itself or the scope jamming my glasses into my nose. OUCH! I use the word "cheap" to define quality, not price.

I have three Bushnell scopes that I feel are well built and quite adequate for the guns/barrels they are mounted on. They are not very expensive, $90-200. One is on an Encore 12 guage slug barrel and it is the new model with 6" eye relief. This scope is great for this purpose. T/C has a crazy scope base that only fits this barrel and puts the scope further forward. The long eye relief really helps. I also have a 6" eye relief scope on my 209x50 barrel. The one thing I don't like about the Encore is the stock design. The recoil tends to kick the gun up into your face instead of straight back so these LER scopes really help on heavy recoil barrels.

I have a couple of Leupolds on dedicated rifles and they have about 3.5" of eye relief. I think that is fine with a high quality scope like this. The eye relief stays constant through-out the magnification range so I don't have to creep up on it at higher levels.

One thing I did not see mentioned here is how to properly mount a scope in regards to eye relief. Make sure that the scope is set to it's highest magnification level and position the scope for the proper eye relief. Everybody reading this probably already knows this but just wanted to make sure. I like to do this from the offhand position. You never know when you may get a shot and I just want the gun to naturally go into position without having to adjust my head to see through the scope. This may put the scope closer to your face while at the bench or in the prone position but you should have more time to adjust your head before taking the shot.

Last but not least is my advice to buy a "quality" scope. I don't think you need to drop $1200 on a Swarovski but don't buy a $40 cheapy either. Like BigCountry said, I have swapped scopes onto different rifles because I always seem to be buying and selling guns but I keep my scopes.

bigcountry

They do? I know alot that don't like Burris for instance. I require the 3.6" of a Leupold. Or the 3.5" of a Zeiss. I can't do with less with my RUM's or or other hard kicking guns.

You know I used to put alot of considerations into lenses, and all too. But started asking myself, why? I mean, I use to be in the business of lenses and index matching coatings. I understand durability, and maybe wieght. But the coatings and lenses are pretty stardard or as you say adequate for any hunting situation on these higher end scopes.

I see alot of guys say they can tell the difference between this and that. But when I put htem to the test, it usually appears to be purely emotional. In other words, thats what they always buy.

stubblejumper

The eye relief changes considerably as the magnification is adjusted with my leupold vxiii.