Originally Posted by Jeff_O
battue, I hope you realized that the <BSEG> after my old phart comment means <Big [bleep] Eating Grin>...?

You are in good shape... for an old phart <g>. A compliment. Nice to put a photo to a screen name, too.

When I posted my photo for Tom264, I didn't realize we were going to show off our whole "killin' stance". Good lord peoples. I'm on the balls of my feet when I'm shooting for real.

Again, I take no issue with how any of you shoulder your rifles. I, too, could crane my neck forwards like that, but it's not at all natural for my body, it's a strain, and it's not the right thing for ME to be doing. Sounds like it's not for SU35 either. I'm for thinking he's killed some stuff.

Let me say again, because it got minimal traction due to Art's huffing and puffing the first time... there is indeed a spot, with a Leupold 2.5x8, where you can get a full field of view at all power settings... maybe, and barely. The problems are, this spot greatly compromises the low-power performance, and this spot is considerably closer to the scope than I'd like to be! You are at the far forward end of the eye box (hope that's the right way to put it). You have managed to take a scope with a very forgiving eye box, and make it one that is quite critical!

Try it and see. I have.

I have no problem with anyone who chooses to do this; it's a free country, the Far Right wing's efforts to the contrary <g>. But check it out for yourself. What I'm saying is true. You have traded eye box WHERE IT MATTERS, for a full field of view at full power- which doesn't matter.

I choose to put my scope where I am right in the middle of the sweet spot at low power, giving me enormous latitude in body and head position for a quick shot. And I choose to keep my head more or less there if I crank the power up, rather than crawling the stock to chase the image as the eye relief shortens. I do this because my shooting has shown me that BY FAR the most important thing, for me, is maintaining a comfortable, natural, consistant head position and cheek weld. That the "black around the image" at high power serves to remind me to keep my head centered behind the scope at long range/high magnification (same thing for me) is a side bonus.

That i don't get hit by my scopes, even on my .338 (M700 XCR) and .325's (Montana and BLR) is a simple fact. I do believe that a natural head position back a ways on the stock is the way to AVOID getting hit. Sure works for me. Do my thought experiment. Think of how a rifle rotates in space as it bucks up.

These are just choices I've made that work for me. I'm not you. I'm not shooting a pellet gun in the Olympics. And I'm not out there getting judged on form.

Finally, one more thing. The Zeiss on my M7, the 1.8-5.5 Conquest that none have you have ever even seen or handled, is a fixed-eye-relief scope. This is the scope that started this whole damn thing. Now I ask you. How frikkin' hard is it, to know where the sweet spot is with a scope, when the eye relief is fixed? There IS NO juggling of trading low power this for high power that. You just find the spot where you get a full field, and maximum eye box. Then you find the spot where your head naturally wants to be on the stock. Then you put the scope there, and shoot the sucker a bunch. It ain't hard. You'd have to be pretty damn stupid to screw up the placement of a fixed-eye-relief scope, if you are mounting it such that it works best for YOU.

All of which is fine, until you post a picture of it, and some guy named Art who's 1000's of miles away, thinks he knows it all but yet has never so much as touched that scope, never mounted one on a M7, and sure as [bleep] never has been around me when I shoot... starts in with the name calling and crapola...

And here we are, arguing about something stupid on the internet <g>.


Very succinct.


Travis