Thread: New rifle, scope question

Hi guys,

Went into hunting & fishing today to get myself a gun. Couldn't wait any longer. Managed to score a very good deal in the end.

Anyway, I took my scope in and the fella fitted it for me. I feel like it's a bit too far forward tho? He did get me to look through etc before he tightened it. But when I questioned it being so far forward, he said it's to prevent the recoil from giving u that third eyebrow. It just looks more forward than any gun I see online. doesn't look right to me, also when I bring it up to my shoulder I have to creep my head forward just a tad to get the perfect eye relief (maybe a cm or so). Any opinions on this?

Here's a photo.




Cheers

looks to far forward to me

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maybe you should get some of those neck rings like african women have

I mount mine a long way forward.

I have mine as far forward as it goes re: eye relief. There are many resources online that show you how to mount a rifle scope. It wouldn't be a big deal to slide it back a bit. What calibre did you go for?

How tall are you? Might need longer length of pull

Originally Posted by stug

I mount mine a long way forward.

About the same as my one or a bit more toward the rear? ive browsed a couple of forums regarding this issue and some (although few) suggest that, on a hunting rifle, put it as far forward as you can while still having proper eye relief. But like i said, werent many people saying this so i am unsure.

Originally Posted by MightyBoosh

I have mine as far forward as it goes re: eye relief. There are many resources online that show you how to mount a rifle scope. It wouldn't be a big deal to slide it back a bit. What calibre did you go for?

Yea i suppose, i dont have a torque screw driver or anything though so ill have to play it by feel. Went for a 308..

Originally Posted by MSL

How tall are you? Might need longer length of pull

Average, 178cm last time i checked. Longer lenth of pull? what does that mean?

Length of pull is the distance from the trigger straight back to the rear of the recoil pad. General rule of thumb, hold the rifle around the pistol grip with your finger on the trigger (obviuosly with an unloaded rifle) the recoil pad should fir in the crook of your arm, ie arm bent at 90 degrees.

yeah, you probably should have a torque screwdriver. otherwise, be firm, but gentle

i'm looking at my first centrefire, .308 makes so much sense, but want a 7mm08! - i'll leaving that discussion for another thread, don't want to hijack yours.

Originally Posted by MightyBoosh

yeah, you probably should have a torque screwdriver. otherwise, be firm, but gentle

i'm looking at my first centrefire, .308 makes so much sense, but want a 7mm08! - i'll leaving that discussion for another thread, don't want to hijack yours.

I was in the EXACT same position. My head said 308, but my heart said 7mm08. I usually go with my heart, but I usually screw up these type of decisions so I went with my head this time

In all seriousness, decided on the 308 for: 1 - cheaper and much greater bullet selection/availability. 2 - I wont ever be shooting far enough to really use the advantage of the 7mm-08's flatter shooting. 3 - better knockdown power due to wider bullet. And 4 - decided to harden up because I realised the only advantage for myself that the 7mm-08 offers is less recoil.

Hope this helps your decision

Cheers

There are very few gun shops I would trust to correctly fit a scope. After watching the efforts of a gun shop jockey in GS one day my opinion is only reinforced. He did the whole exercise using a battery drill! Plus how do you set up a rifle and scope for an absentee owner?

In your case due to experience you probably have to hope the gun shop will do the best for you. In this case I would say the guy was “lacking”. Your scope looks too far fwd which will cause you to “crawl” your head fwd on the stock and assume an unnatural position. Getting a smack in the eye is more about not holding the rifle correctly.

The way I set up my scopes is to first decide whether I will predominantly be shooting prone or off hand. For my F Class stuff it is obviously prone and I do the set up prone. For my hunting rifles I go with an off hand setup keeping in mind that prone shots that will still be taken tend have the effect of shortening the distance between my eye and the scope. Sitting at a bench will be similar to off hand. You will never get a perfect set up as you could be taking shots steeply up hill or steeply downhill which changes the relationship between eye and scope. Steeply uphill – beware a “Weatherby eye” may be the outcome. You learn after one experience!

I mount the scope very loosely in the rings. Set scope power to max – this will give the shortest eye relief. With eyes closed raise rifle to shoulder in a comfortably hold. You can rest the forend against something to do this but try to maintain a natural upright position.
Open eyes and check the view thru the scope. Your view should be the full field of the lens. If the scope is too far fwd you will get a reduced circle of view. Adjust scope position in the rings backwards or fwds to get max size of the view. Typically the distance between eye and scope will end up ~ 3.5”/90mm but this will depend upon scope brand/model.

There are a whole heap of other things to be aware of which would require a few more chapters e.g. is the scope held true in the rings/do the rings need lapping? Bad alignment of the rings can damage the scope. Some rifle actions are shockers and the line up between the back and front rings crap, likewise cheap rings can give problems as well. Also need to, once eye relief is determined, set the vertical part of the cross hair plumb thru the bore centre.

Congrats on your new toy as well. I can still well remember my first rifle.

Originally Posted by TheJanitar

I was in the EXACT same position. My head said 308, but my heart said 7mm08. I usually go with my heart, but I usually screw up these type of decisions so I went with my head this time

In all seriousness, decided on the 308 for: 1 - cheaper and much greater bullet selection/availability. 2 - I wont ever be shooting far enough to really use the advantage of the 7mm-08's flatter shooting. 3 - better knockdown power due to wider bullet. And 4 - decided to harden up because I realised the only advantage for myself that the 7mm-08 offers is less recoil.

Hope this helps your decision

Cheers

The difference between 7mm08 and 308 is pretty negligible overall. Similar bullet weights for common hunting rounds in the 140-160gr weights, similar velocities and similar dimensions, recoil, performance. If you consider comparable ammunition. Say for example Hornady Whitetail interlock, 140gr for the 7mm08, and 150gr for the 308. Similar loads and prices. With both zero'd at 200m they are +1.9" (308, and 1.8" (7mm08) high at 100. so 1 tenth of an inch at 100m, take that out to 300 metres and according to the packets 7mm08 is 7.9" low and the 308 is 8.5" low. Thats just over HALF AN INCH at 300mtres! And this is most likely due in part to the slightly lighter projectile in the 7mm08. With the difference being much much less than any group a new shooter could be expected to shoot, it means that are effectively close enough to identical in performance that it will make little or no measurable difference to a shooter.

Recoil is not determined by calibre. It is relatively simple physics (E=MC2) Energy forward equals energy rearwards. Energy is weight x velocity x velocity. If the bullet energy is the same out the muzzle then the recoil is the same if the rifle weight is the same. The only ways to reduce recoil is to reduce the energy going forward or increase the weight going rearwards.

Hence the advice to go 308 would be my call. What ever way you decide to go, you will need practise, and the more of it the better you will become. With 308 having a lot of cheaper ammo options available (Barnaul, PMC, Freedom munitions etc) then you get more practise for the same money.

And before anyone has a go about the 7mm08 vs 308, both are very good calibres, both are ideal choices for NZ game. Both are almost identical in performance. If someone could source $1 per shot for 7mm08 then the only real difference between the two would be gone. If any counter jumper tells you one is much better than the other, they are either wrong and should not be trusted, or lying and should not be trusted....

Your eye is inthe right position when you can see clearly though tne sight with no grey/ black blurriness round the edge.

To check its right you bring the gun up to your shoulder with eyes closed . Then open and your eye should be in the right spot. You'll find ideal mounting is a bit further back forstanding anda bit further forward for lying down. (prone).

You'II need to set the crosshairs Vertical too. set sCOpe to lowest power so the image (exit pupil) it big, Then by eye lookup and down the vertical crosshair to check the Vertical hair goes straight toward the center of the barrel ,

most people mount and adjust their Own scopes.