I'm in agreement with Dennis and the others here. I do own one scope with less than 3.5 inches of ER, but it's currently not on a rifle.
I haven't seen anyone mention eye box, the fore and aft leeway one gets with scopes. That helps alot. Particularly if you shoot from different shooting positions, hunt under a wide variation of temperatures, or shoot sharply up or downhill.
Placing a scope on the rifle does make a difference of course. Even a scope with lots of ER and EB can hurt you if not placed right. I don't know about the rest here, but the only way for me to know if I've placed it right, is to shoot it from the field positions I use. E
