Eye position in scope when holding wind

[Dan Russell]

A question occurred to me while shooting the other day, so I’m appealing to the knowledge on this forum. Say you’ve dialed for elevation and are holding wind (call it 1.5 mils) how should the eye be positioned behind the scope? I see three options: 1.) focus on center of reticle while seeing the wind hold kind of out of the side of your eye. Downside to this seems to be that your not as focused on where you want the bullet to hit, almost like using “Kentucky windage”. 2.) eye looking through center of eyepiece and focused on your 1.5 mil hold on the horizontal stadia. This seems weird b/c your looking through the scope at an angle. 3.) eye looking straight through scope, but offset in eyepiece to accommodate the 1.5 mil hold. When I try this it feels strange not to have my eye centered in the eyepiece.

Is there a right way and wrong way to do this? Thanks for any info!

 

[hereinaz]

I don’t think I understand.

When I hold wind, I still have my eye centered with no scope shadow to keep parallax error at a minimum.

 

[Megalodon]

Your head position is always the same, look at the part of the reticle you are using.

Not sure how this is a question, you're overthinking it.

 

[Dan Russell]

I definitely could be overthinking, wouldn’t be the first time.

If you draw a straight line from the very center of the eyepiece to 1.5 mils either side of center of the reticle, then continue that line straight through the objective lens it would not be parallel with a line that has the same point of origin but does go through the center of the reticle. That’s what I was thinking might be a source of error.

Thanks for the replies.

 

[Macintosh]

Yes, you are using a point on the reticle off-center from the main crosshair as your point of aim...that's the whole point of having a graduated reticle in the first place, is so you can do exactly that.

 

[Wrench]

Search setting parallax. You'll learn how your head position can affect accuracy.

One of the key fundamentals of rifle accuracy is is mounting the rifle and managing recoil. You can't do those two things if you are not consistent.

 

[atmat]

Yes, you are using a point on the reticle off-center from the main crosshair as your point of aim...that's the whole point of having a graduated reticle in the first place, is so you can do exactly that.

He’s asking if you should focus on the crosshair or focus on the particular sub tension mark.

It’s somewhat similar to asking if people focus on the animal or the crosshair.

Regardless, focus on the hash mark you’re using. That becomes the new “crosshair” for you.

 

[TaperPin]

It might help to keep in mind the reticle is never perfectly centered in the scope - it’s offset in all directions to zero the rifle, sometimes a lot. By looking at a different part of the reticle rather than center, it’s no different optically from moving the reticle to that position. Position the eye as if you moved the reticle, meaning align the eye in the “normal” way.

 

[hereinaz]

I definitely could be overthinking, wouldn’t be the first time.

If you draw a straight line from the very center of the eyepiece to 1.5 mils either side of center of the reticle, then continue that line straight through the objective lens it would not be parallel with a line that has the same point of origin but does go through the center of the reticle. That’s what I was thinking might be a source of error.

Thanks for the replies.

You are looking at bent light, where it is in the scope. It’s not weird angles causing you to need to move your head to center your eye. It’s literally a tiny movement. How far is 1.5 mil at 12 inches?

As you go outside of the center 1/3 there begins to be weird optical things going on that I can’t explain. But minor wind holds are not going to be an issue.

Big wind holds, you are going to have more issues calling it correctly than anything the optical system can create.

Parallax is not really as big a deal as people make it out to be. Center your eye and get clean scope shadow, then you are good. Focusing out parallax is nice on top of that.