Within the past year I have bought two new Leupolds, one a 2-12X40 VX-IIAO and a new VX-III 4.5-14X40AO. Both have too much eye relief to the point that I can not get the scope far enough ahead on a low power setting.
Anyone else had or seen this?

I always thought the generous eye relief on Leupold scopes was a good thing. Do you need glasses?

Curious if you are shooting off bench, standing, prone, etc.? How far back from say end of bolt/bolt shroud is the ocular piece of the scope, 1,2,3" ?? The power adj. ring prevents vairables from being seated forward somewhat and that does create a problem in prone shooting for your head is forward more than other positions. Other than what I have described, Leupolds normally don't have any more eye relief problems than others. You may have to alter the mount system. What firearm are you using?

+1 Something doesn't sound right. If you need more eye relief and can't get it than your mounting system needs to be changed to allow for it. Some cheap mounts, although very good, are not very forgiving. The weaver two piece for instance on a long action rifle many restrict forward adjustability as apposed to a traditional one piece with dove tail front and windage rear.

Let's try this again.
These scopes I mentioned HAVE TOO MUCH EYE RELIEF. This means when I put the rifle up to fire (in any damn shooting position) I DO NO GET A COMPLETE FIELD OF VIEW. ALL I SEE IS A SMALL FIELD OF VIEW ie. TUNNEL VIEW. I have to move my head back to the rear from where I normally am on the stock. These are the newer Leupolds an all were purchased in the last 4 months. This occurs only on the lowest power settings. I am comparing them to my older Vari-X IIIs that I have on the same bases/rings (all Weaver bases and rings, all mounted on identical actions. I failed to mention that I also have this same occurance on a new VX-II 6-18X40AO that sits on my SA M-70. None of my older Vari-X IIIs have this problem and they are mounted on SAs and LAs both.

I've never heard of a scope having too much eye relief, but anything is possible.

Have you called Leupold to discuss this with them? Genuine Leupold scopes have a lifetime warranty.

Can you post photos of the problem scopes as they are mounted?

George
P.S. Check the manual that came with your scopes; you used to be able to adjust eye relief to some degree by moving the eyepiece forward or back after loosening the lock ring.

I know what you are talking about, I had a Swarovski Z6 EE which is the extended eye relief model and it too had too much eye relief. The scope functioned fine but I could not benefit from the added eye relief because I couldn't get the scope forward enough.

When mounting a scope on a magnum sized action with thick rings like Talleys you sometimes can not get the scope to move forward enough especially if it has a long eye box.

For me 3.75" is about perfect with anything 4" or over being too much. Too much eye relief also reduces field of view so if you have a scope with more eye relief then you need then you are wasting field of view.

How tall are you? Could be your gun has too short a length of pull for you. Also, if you tend to crawl forward on the scope you may be crowding it. Extension bases and rings are available to move the scope forward if necessary.

Thats where you need a scope with a consistant eye relief so you don't move up and down the stock when you change power settings. Need something like a zeiss,consistant 4" eye relief or 3.5", depends on the scope you buy but consistant is what you look for. Just another reason I don't and wont buy a leupold. There are much better scopes for the money. You can look at a picatinny rail and weaver style rings to help solve your problem or sell and buy another brand.

You must be shooting small calibres. I'm always worried about the opposite problem, but then I don't have any 12 or 14 power scopes.

quote:

Originally posted by Rae59:
Within the past year I have bought two new Leupolds, one a 2-12X40 VX-IIAO and a new VX-III 4.5-14X40AO. Both have too much eye relief to the point that I can not get the scope far enough ahead on a low power setting.
Anyone else had or seen this?

Just turn the power up, it will go away quickly. Leupolds are bad about that.

Extended rings = one option.

Rich

I have also found this on a number of rifles. There is a very real possibility of too much eye relief. It dependes on the application and how we hold a rifle.

I have been shooting the rifles/scope combinations that I mentioned earlier in this post in the past 5 weeks.

Guys, I am telling you that the new Leupold VX II and IIIs are not of the same good quality as the former Vari-X II and IIIs. I measured the end of scope to butt of stock and the distances are pretty much the same (12-5/8") on ALL of my Leupold scopes, both older ones and new. Also, all three of the new VX scopes, have clarity issues as opposed to my three older Vari-X scopes. It seems the new VXs are never in focus AND always seem to need to be adjusted/re-adjusted at the AO, even at the same target distances with varying light conditions. On one of the new VX IIIs (4.5-14x40 AO) I have to turn the AO to infinity on a 200 yard target, and even then it is not quite properly focused or clear. As someone else pointed out here at AR, the new Leupolds do not have "Made In USA" on the box/scope anymore.

quote:

Originally posted by sb42:

Just turn the power up, it will go away quickly. Leupolds are bad about that.

Not so. On my older Vari-X IIIs this problem is almost non-existant, especially compared to the new VX jobs.

Yes Leupold is a strange bird. When other quality scope manufacturers have (almost) constant eyerelief this big factory can´t do that. It is irritating with eyerelief changing with magnification settings on variable scopes. Today I own one Leupold VX-II 1-4x20 with nr 4 reticle.

quote:

Originally posted by Grumulkin:
I always thought the generous eye relief on Leupold scopes was a good thing.

Me too