As everyone familiar with optics is aware, every scope's Field of View is necessarily smaller than it could be in order to provide the scope with the requisite eye relief of 3-4" for most scopes intended for high-powered rifles.

But so much eye relief is not needed for a bench/varmint rifle in most .22 centerfire calibers, especially the dedicated ones with heavy barrels which dampen the small cartridges' modest recoil even further.

It occurs to me that 2 inches of eye relief would still be plenty for a scope mounted on a .204, .223, etc. Such a scope could have a substantially larger FOV than one with a 4" eye relief.

Now, that is only important to those of us who like hunting colony varmints and very much need high magnification, but also want to be able to call our own shots. Calling your own shots is usually possible with scopes up to 10X or maybe 12X, but at 16 or 18X the FOV is almost always so small that the shooter loses sight of the target due to recoil (even with a .223).

If a maker of high quality scopes were to offer, say, a 16X fixed with a 2" eye relief and the FOV of a 10X, then I'd quickly grab one to put on one of my dedicated PD rifles. Am I onto something, or barking up an empty tree?

I'm opposed to such short eye relief.

While I shoot a lot of prairie dogs from a seated position, sometimes we go prone. This would put my eye/nose too close to the eyepiece.

Ten or twenty taps, even light ones, might induce a flinch.

Are you shooting with a bipod or off a soft bag/pack? When I hold the fore-end of my rifles, I can see almost every hit.

George

Granted, if you were going to use a scope with short eye relief you would want to assure that your shooting position, eye placement, and recoil were all compatible with the reduced eye relief.

I shoot PD's almost exclusively seated and resting on sandbags. Even with something as light-recoiling as a .221 Fireball shooting 40 grain bullets I find it very hard to consistently see the bullet impact with an 18x scope. I swapped out the 18X for a 12X on this gun specifically to be able to see the impact and it has made a world of difference. It would just be nice to get a 12X FOV with an 18X scope.

Seems like a fair proportion of the higher magnification Euro scopes have very short eye relief already

quote:

Originally posted by Mikelravy:
Seems like a fair proportion of the higher magnification Euro scopes have very short eye relief already

Not so much short as critical, ie., the "sweet spot" may be at 4", but your eye must be nearly exactly 4" or you lose the sight picture. Ironically, these European scopes also tend to have somewhat restricted FOV, and I'm not sure why. They are OUTSTANDING telescopes; but as optical gunsights, not so much.

Are you shooting with a bipod or off a soft bag/pack?

When I hold the fore-end of my rifles, I can see almost every hit, even with my .243AI.

George

How heavy is your .243 AI and what power scope are you using?

It weighs 9lbs. and carries a Leupold 4.5x-14xAO scope.

George

I haven't tried the 4.5-14X. It might have just enough FOV for most varminting rifles. I have several of the excellent 6-18X Leupolds, but if used at full power I usually lose the sight picture just long enough to make seeing the bullet strike iffy. I rarely have this problem with a 4-12 Leupold, even on harder-kicking rifles.

No thanks. Not for me. I want scopes with longer eye relief, not shorter.

I like to move scopes around from rifle to rifle, depending on what guns I've bought recently and where/how I'm going to be hunting. I like to have as much flexibility in that as I can.

If I was an optics manufacturer I wouldn't even consider making or selling such a short eye relief scope. Eyes cost too much for me to start buying them from foolish shooters who didn't read or understand their short eye relief specs.

if you want a HUGE FOV and don't mind VERY short eye relief, google MTC Viper Connect scopes. they are mainly designed for high power air rifles but will work on any low recoil gun and side focus from about 10 yards to infinity. very interesting design concept.

Wasn't aware of the Viper scopes. Just how short is their eye relief?

the Viper Connect model has essentialy no eye relief. it has a soft rubber boot/extension that sits flush with your face, keeping outside light out. boot can be removed and eye relief is then about 3/4 inch. google MTC optics for a picture. the Connect is quite popular with UK air gun hunters because the EXTREMELY wide FOV allows quick target acquistion. overall, the MTC scope line is the most popular scope line for airguns/ low recoil rifles in the UK and much of Europe. the Connect model is a 3-12x32 scope with lighted mildot type reticle. it requires a special set of mounting rings because of the weird design.

Three-quarters of an inch may be a bit tight, even for just a .222. I was thinking more in the area of 1.75-2 inches. I'm not sure how to calculate how much additional FOV this might affored over the typical 3.5-4" of most scopes for centerfire rifles, but I assume it would be significant.