How to Avoid ‘Scope Bite’ (Scope Placement Tips)
This helpful video from our friend Kirsten Joy Weiss explains how to avoid “scope bite”. This can occur when the scope, on recoil, moves back to contact your forehead, brow, or eye socket area. That’s not fun. While common sense tells us to avoid “scope bite” — sooner or later this happens to most shooters. One viewer noted: “I have come close. I had a Win Model 70 in .375 H & H Mag and I was shooting over a large rock in a strange position. The scope hit my eye glasses hard enough to bend the wire frames and cause a little pain on the bridge of the nose from the nose piece. [That] made a believer out of me.”
Kirsten offers a good basic principle — she suggests that you mount your rifle-scope so that the ocular (eyepiece) of the scope is positioned at least three inches or more from your eyeball when you hold the rifle in your normal shooting position. From a technical standpoint, optical eye relief is a property of the scope, so you want to purchase an optic that offers sufficient optical eye relief (meaning that it allows you to see the full circle of light with your head at least three inches from the eyepiece). Then you need to position the optic optimally for your head/eye position when shooting the rifle — with at least three inches of eyeball-to-scope separation (i.e. physical eye relief).
NOTE: You should mount the scope to provide adequate eyeball-to-scope separation for the actual position(s) you will be shooting most of the time. For an F-TR rig, this will be prone. For a hunting rifle, your most common position could be sitting or standing. Your head position will vary based on the position. You can’t assume the scope placement is correct just because it seems OK when you are testing or zeroing the gun from the bench. When shooting from a prone or kneeling position you may find your eye considerably closer to the eyepiece.
Similar Posts:
- Scope Mounting — How to Avoid That Rude Poke in the Eye
- How to Properly Mount a Scope on a Hunting or Field Rifle
- Optics INFO: Mounting a Scope on Your Hunting Rifle
- Mounting a Scope Properly on Your Hunting Rifle
- Kowa Introduces TSN-82SV Spotting Scope
Tags: Eye Relief, Hunting Rifle, Kirsten, Kirsten Joy Weiss, Optic, safety, Scope, Vision
If you do a ‘full turkey neck’ (stretch your neck/head toward the target to the maximum possible neck extension) then mount your scope so that you have a full field of vision (no shadowing in the eyepiece), then you cannot get ‘scope bite’ because as the rifle moves back your head will move back .
This is an ideal technique for offhand shooting.
Of course if your shooting XTC…..
Hello,
I have a AR-15 with a red-dot scope shooting with it some time now and never had that problem,and have good results on my targets.
Kirsten,
Great video, thanks for sharing your tips. What do you think about a proper cheek weld for perfect eye alignment. I noticed that your eye is a little below the center line of the scope in your picture of the 3″ eye relief or more with the red line between your eye & the scope. What is your opinion about that. Do you need an additional 1/8″ comb height for a perfect cheek weld/perfect eye alignment?
Sincerely,
Matthew
One thing worth noting is that your scope to head clearance will change depending on what position you are shooting from. Standing, shooting off hand will give the most distance for a given stock length and scope position. When you shift to sitting at a bench this will generally shorten up a bit, and in the prone position it will be the shortest. This is one of the main reasons that match rifles that are built for shooting in more than one position (standing,sitting,& prone) have stocks that feature adjustable length of pull (measurement from trigger to butt). When I set up a rifle, especially one that has much recoil, I place the scope so that I have to crane my head forward to get a full field of view (make the black around the edges disappear). That way, if I get excited or distracted, I am less likely to get bitten. When you are shooting from the bench as you move your shoulders from being at a right angle to the bore, to a more acute angle, your distance to the scope will decrease, so be sure to check your eye relief when in your actual shooting position.