Monday, December 26, 2011

Riflescope Eye Relief

 

The 'eye relief' is the correct distance between the ocular lens (rear lens of a scope) and the shooter's eye where he can see the full field of view (FOV).

If the shooter sees a shadow around the perimeter of the FOV, he has not taken the correct eye relief which offers the clearest FOV (without any hint of a shadow around the perimeter of the lens). The average distance of the eye and the ocular lens where the shooter can get the full FOV is around 3-3.5inches.

Another concern that must be addressed by the shooter aside from the full FOV is the bad effect of recoil. The closer the eyes to the ocular lens, the more disastrous it can be.

This reminds me about a scene in Central Mindanao when a 'sniper wannabe' officer requested to fire the 50 Cal Barrett. He claimed to have some experience using scopes (perhaps shooting birds using Cal 22).

When I noticed that his eyes was too close to the ocular lens, I warned him to stay away from the rim of the lens. He insisted to remain that way because 'he had tried it before'.

After firing one round, I heard a distinctive cry: "Arayyyyyy!". He was blooded due to a cut right on top of his eyebrow. It needed about 5 stitches to repair his wound.

 He just laughed despite his misery but he learned a painful lesson.

Others call it the 'apprentice cut'. I term it the 'stupid cut'.

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