Lily Miller Let’s begin with the question, what is eye relief on a scope?
The distance between the tip of your eye and the lens of your binoculars or scope is known as eye relief. You will see a distorted image, such as a fuzzy image or a black ring around the field of view, when viewing a scene through any lens with an incorrect eye relief distance.
Please continue reading for more details on what eye relief on a scope is.
Table of Contents
What Is The Purpose Of Eye Relief?
Many shooters leave for a day of target practice without giving it a second thought, picking up their gun, mounting their scope, and leaving.
Several return wearing bandages on their eyebrows.
Why?
due to the fact that they mishandled the eye relief. Spending some time at the beginning becoming familiar with proper eye relief will save time and reduce your risk for “scope eye.””
The condition known as “scope eye” occurs when your scope is mounted in such a way that you must crouch down close to have a clear field of vision. When using a powerful rifle, the recoil will cause your scope to hit your eye if you get too close to it.
In short:
Get enough eye relief if you don’t want to appear as though you just came out of a boxing match.
Do I Need A Lot Or A Little Eye Relief?
Eye relief can be of two different types:
- Standard Eye Relief
- Long Eye Relief
The advantages of each are as follows:
Standard Eye Relief
Measurement: 3.5 to 4 inches — common on centerfire rifles.
Shooting type: Perfect for shooting at a distance.
Shooting Area: ideal in wide, level spaces.
Shooting Caliber: The ideal caliber is medium.
Upside: The highest magnification available is provided by standard eye relief scopes.
Downside: The field of view is smaller than that of long eye relief scopes.
Long Eye Relief
Measurement: Above 4.5 inches
Shooting type: is preferred for shooting at closer ranges and in situations where maximum magnification is not desired.
Shooting Area: areas with a lot of hills, uneven ground, brush, and trees.
Shooting Caliber: Perfect for large-caliber rifles.
Upside: A target can be quickly identified and sighted thanks to the wider field of view.
Downside: Smaller magnification capabilities when compared to standard eye relief options
Read about: What Is Chuck Eye Steak?
Adjust Eye Relief On A Rifle Scope
This part can be a little confusing because a scope’s eye relief is a fixed setting, so to change it to a shooter’s preferred eye relief, you must actually move the scope forward or backward in the ring or rings.
My standard procedure is as follows:
Once the scope is temporarily mounted in the rings, the shooter should close both eyes, mount the rifle or shotgun to their shoulder, and place their face on the stock in a natural shooting position. Then, with both eyes open, see what they initially see through the scope with their dominant eye.
Normally, the dominant eye for a right-handed shooter is the right eye, while the dominant eye for a left-handed shooter is the left eye. However, some people have cross eye dominance, which causes a RH shooter to have a dominant left eye and vice versa. For both cross eye dominate and standard dominate shooters, this method works perfectly.
It’s important to pay attention to what the shooter (or you, if you’re doing this process alone), initially sees because the dominant eye will try to refocus or adjust if you stare through the scope for more than 20 or 30 seconds.
The scope is too close to the shooter’s eye and needs to be moved away from the shooter’s eye (as in moved forward in the rings) to adjust eye relief. If you (or the shooter) looks through the scope at a specific object and sees a wide dark ring around the outside of the scope but can see the entire reticle. (see the image below)
The scope needs to be moved back in the rings toward the shooter’s eye if you look through it and notice a dark ring around the very outside edge of the scope view and can only make out a portion of the reticle. (See image below)
If you or the shooter can see the entire target when looking through the scope at it, that indicates that the eye relief is adequate, and the scope should be marked in the rings at that precise location. (See below)
Repeat this process until the shooter or you can see the entire field of view without any dark rings or spots.
I frequently mark the position in the rings with a small piece of masking tape once the scope has been set within the rings to the point where the eye relief is ideal. I then put the rifle or shotgun back on the bench and make sure the reticle is level.
I’ll use a scope level tool or another cool scope leveling tool (which I’ll share later) to gently level the reticle if it isn’t level.
After that is finished, I’ll use a scope mounting torque wrench to tighten the rings to the ring manufacturer’s specifications (click that link if you need a new torque wrench).
What Is A Suitable Eye Relief For A Rifle Scope?
It’s crucial to realize that the eye relief specifications provided by the scope manufacturers are more of a general guide than a precise science before I proceed to answer that question. Therefore, if a scope’s specs indicate that its eye relief is between 3 and 4 inches, I would err on the side of expecting the “actual” eye relief to be closer to 3 inches.
After studying countless rifle scope brands over the years, I’d say the industry average for eye relief is probably close to 3 inches. When it comes to eye relief, some rifle scope brands consistently provide better options than others, and as you move up the price scale, you’ll typically find that the eye relief options get better (as in, expand).
Now, I’m not saying that you have to buy an expensive model to get good eye relief on a scope; rather, the eye relief ranges tend to grow as the scopes’ prices rise.
When looking for a scope for myself, I typically won’t consider a rifle scope unless the eye relief is at least 3 inches. I usually increase my eye relief minimum to at least 4.5 inches if the glass is going on a shotgun for deer or a higher-powered caliber. I will start looking for something in the 5 to 6 inch range if the scope is going on something that really, really generates some recoil.
Most shooters can get by with a scope running a 4-inch eye relief unless they’re shooting something with a painful recoil.
An Eye Relief Extender For Rifle Scopes Is What?
The name “eye relief extender” is a little misleading because a rifle scope’s eye relief cannot be increased beyond its factory settings. Despite this, there are some places that promote an “eye relief” extension device, which consists of a rubber piece that mounts on the end of the scope and extends the scope tube by about three inches. To further protect the eye from recoil, many of these products also have padding in the accordion style.
While these types of devices do help to block out any ambient light from coming in around the ocular part of the scope, my experience has been that they do not actually “extend” the eye relief any past the scope’s factory settings.
Which Portion Of The Scope Should I Adjust The Eye Relief On?
A built-in eye relief adjustment is not present on the scope itself. There aren’t any dials, knobs, or buttons that you can turn to change the eye relief.
By moving the rifle scope closer or farther away from the shooter’s eye, the scope eye relief can be altered. When the scope is loosely positioned inside the rings, that adjusting movement occurs.
A Long Eye Relief Rifle Scope Is What I’m Looking For.
The majority of higher end rifle scope manufacturers have more accommodating eye relief, and some even provide scope models that are specifically marketed as long eye relief models.
Those brands include: (in no particular order and just to name a few)
- Nightforce
- Zeiss
- Vortex
- Leupold
- Meopta
- The upper end Bushnell scopes
The best place to start would be with any of those manufacturers, but there are other businesses that sell rifle scopes with long eye relief.
Is Long Eye Relief Possible With The Majority Of Modern Scopes?
What sort of “scope” are you referring to? Spotting scope? Astro telescope? A microscope, a rifle scope?
The eye relief for the majority of these is determined by the eyepiece design. Long-relief eyepieces are generally more expensive because they have more elements and a larger average diameter.
All eyepieces for rifle scopes should have long eye relief designs. When a gun is fired, it recoils, and you want the eye relief to be greater than the recoil distance to prevent the scope from poking your eye out.
Conclusion
What exactly is an eye relief scope, in the end?
Do you now comprehend what eye relief on a scope means? Please post a comment if you experience any issues understanding what an eye relief on a scope is. I’ll provide a brief response to your query. Please bookmark and subscribe if you enjoyed the article.
For reading, I sincerely appreciate it.
