Eye Relief? How far back is too much?

[CalebClick]

I’m an east coast guy new to stretching out the range with the rifle. Growing up in the east, we never paid much attention to the fine details of precision shooting because our shots on deer shots were mainly all within 200 yards. As I’m preparing for my first elk hunt this fall, I’ve realized that I need to pay a lot more attention to the details and practice, practice, practice. In my practice, I’ve noticed my eye relief was set causing me to have to stick my neck out to get the full field of view at max zoom. That being said, I’ve been looking in to fixing that issue. However, in testing pulling the gun up with eyes closed, I’ve determined the maximum eye relief is achieved with the scope this far back. If so, I certainly will have to get new rings to get it off the rail. However, my question is, is this scope set position too far back? TIA

 

[Jack321]

As much as its going to sting, maybe try a thinner butt pad, or take to a gunsmith and whittle off some of the butt stock?

Your scope appears to be touching your base, that looks incorrect.

I put mine in a vice, put the scope on max power, then sit down as if im on the bench at the range & move the scope forward or back. But it appears as though you've got yours in a vice also.

 

[flyfisher117]

IMHO that looks way too far back. But I’m 6 ft with 6 ft 2 wing span and a long neck.

Get behind the rifle prone how is the eye relief then? Also sit down on your butt and rest the rifle either on shooting sticks or an object roughly the same height as shooting sticks would be. Then stand and shoulder the rifle.

Do all of that with your eyes closed. Get comfortable behind the rifle. Then open your eyes and see which way the scope needs to go.

 

[butcherboy]

I would say that scope is pretty far back. Oh need to do some adjusting. Maybe length of pull or just a simple head position.

 

[HandgunHTR]

I see these types of questions quite a bit, but unless we see a picture or a video of you in a shooting position with the rifle, all we are doing is guessing.

Look up some videos of people giving instruction on proper shooting positions and determine if you are mounting the rifle correctly. Once you have that down, adjust your scope for proper eye relief.

 

[Southernfried]

That looks like that may hurt your eye socket, specially with a 3006 in a Tikka....Id try moving it forward and reevaluating. Good luck op.

 

[TaperPin]

Those are really high rings - I actually start adjusting eye relief by getting the scope at the level that works best with the cheek piece, or you can keep the scope there and build up the cheek piece. Taller scope puts your head more upright which forces the scope back.

There’s a number of benefits to having to lean your head forward slightly while prone. It makes having less than ideal position for a quick or awkward shot less likely to cut your eye brow. Eye position will be more usable for sitting. What’s not discussed nearly enough is how to make sense out of squared up prone eye relief and bladed sitting. I still chuckle at an instructor trying to get squared up sitting without something to rest the rifle on and he was struggling to hand hold the damn thing.

 

[Wrench]

As mentioned, lose the rail and gain 3/8" . You need to shoot uphill and prone.....and wearing your gear.

A lot of guys set up for warm weather when the season they'll hunt will add a bunch of reach.

You may well be too long on the LOP or you may have some bad fubdamentals. Where does your trigger finger land when you put the stock in the elbow pit?

 

[Macintosh]

Im no leupy fan, but they generally have pretty forgiving eye relief. That scope looks way farther back than Ive seen on a tikka—makes me think something is wrong somewhere to need that. All you need is far enough back to just barely eliminate the shadow around the edges of the fov while in offhand or sitting—other positions your head will be closer to scope. Test with hunting clothes on, but you should easily have enough wiggle room in eye relief so you have full field of view both in prone and offhand without crawling up the stock. Picture looks like you’ll be touching the ocular while prone. That wont end well. All my tikkas on a variety of scopes are mounted with the power-ring +\- directly above the back of the trigger guard.