I've had a question floating around various forums that seems to remain unresolved on one point: When is eye-relief too much?
I have very little experience with scoped rifles or maybe I wouldn't have to ask this. (I shoot competition with irons and hobby around with milsurps.)
If a scope claims an eye-relief of 4" to 4.5", what happens if it is mounted three inches from where your eye lines up when the gun is held in a natural position? Does this make it hard to pick up the image? If so, is it a little difficult but insignificant or pretty darned annoying?
My problem is that I've about decided on a Leupold VX-I or FX-1 to mount on a Remington Model Five (Zastava, Charles Daly, etc.) based on the sleek form and compact dimensions of the Leupold. But it has the longest eye-relief listed of any of the scopes I have compared it to, and I think the Model Five may be just "compact" enough that I'm not going to be able to mount the scope 4" ahead of my eye.
Should I reconsider my choice of one of the Leupolds and look further for a pleasing scope with a shorter eye-relief?