Information About Eye Relief On Rifle Scopes

By Author: Razvan Jr
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For those of you new on hunting, the eye relief of a rifle scope is the term that refers to the position of a rifle scope relative to the position of the hunter. With other words, the eye relief is in fact the distance from the back of the scope to the shooter's sighting eye; in most cases, it is measured in inches. Rifles vary greatly in terms of eye relief and scopes vary depending upon the power magnification as well as other factors.

The eye relief is not determined by how far ahead the hunter likes to place his face, or by how far back on the gun the scope is installed. In fact, the eye relief is the distance at which the hunter can see a full view through the scope. The visible circle of the target area becomes smaller and more wobbly, because of the parallax. In most cases, the more powerful the scope, the lower the eye relief. Most of the high-powered rifle models do not come as standard with the highest magnification scopes, but are in most cases equipped with variable mag scopes in the range of 3x-9x or 3.5x-10x. Such models have an eye relief of 3-4 inches, which is enough to adjust for the recoil of the larger ...
... rounds.

It can be a real problem for the hunter if the eye relief is very small. The recoil of the weapon can jolt the scope back into the eye or the forehead of the hunter. Some of the scopes feature rubber edging in order to avoid cutting but the felt impact is very unpleasant, at least. On the other side, a large eye relief spares the hunter the risk of serious injury, and at the same time can make it easier for the shooter to locate the target. In order to be within the eye relief distance, the hunter only has to get his eye into a range of distances, far enough from the scope to be entirely safe.

The eye relief modifies on the vast majority of the hunting rifle scopes. Most scopes are variable magnification, and eye relief depends upon on magnification. If the scope is configured for higher magnification, the eye relief will decrease. On the contrary, if the scope is adjusted for a lower magnification, the eye relief increases.

Many problems can appear with situations in which hunters chose a certain scope with more magnification than they need. The vast majority of the higher-magnification scopes are designed for varmint guns as these shoot smaller rounds in the range of .22 and .223 centerfire. Such rounds do not have strong recoil, which makes the small eye relief safe. In the situation in which such rifle scopes are mounted on more powerful rifles, like in the family of .30-06 or .270, the small eye relief and large recoil can be very dangerous.

All things considered, the entire topic of the eye relief on the hunting rifle scope is not science and can be fully understood by anyone with minimal rifle/scopes knowledge.

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