Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Scope Height Question?

And another point: David Tubb (13 times national High Power rifle champion) recommends the HIGHEST scope mounts you can get when shooting offhand. Reason: Less fatigue if you can hold your head more erect and not bend it over.

But...Tubb shoots a rifle with an adjustable cheekpiece (as I do for High Power) and this fatigue factor probably doesn't come into play until after you shoot a lot of shots, something which does not happen in hunting.

Tubbs off hand set up (when he shot Silhouette)





Mr. Tubbs won consistently with this setup. Shooting was at different distances, so scope adjustment was mandatory between stages

So, what kind of set-up did he use for comfortably shooting around corners?.......

Also, having a low mounted riflescope with the eye right there, getting a clear sight picture, will also place the iron sights closer for a clear sight picture than highter mounted rings.

Two comments about JWP475's picture of Tubb's silhouette rifle:

1. He canted the rifle steeply to the left. That let him hold his head normally instead of bending it to the right. Less fatigue. A lot of high powwer shooters do teh same.

2, The reason the scope is so high is that this is Tubb's "chin gun." Instead of putting his cheek on the stock, he clamped down with the bottom of his chin. I don't think this caught on.

Interesting! I could not find a picture of Mr. Tubb, but I did find this picture of his sister and I'm told that there is a strong family resemblance:






John

I have a remington 700 BDL s/s in 300 win mag. When I had it the frist time I had low leupold rings with Bushnell 4200 2.5-10-40. When I bought it back from a buddy he had a Bushnell 4-16-50 on it . I shot it with the high rings. I got beat up big time. I put the 2.5 back on and low rings. Love it all over again.

Would it be better to move the zero out from 100 yards as the bullet is still going up faster with it mounted high and close shots tend to be low or should I get used to it at 100?

I like more drop on a stock than these modern ones made popular by Jack O'Connor. I like iron sights, and when I can, I prefer to have my scopes in QD rings.

My lowest scope is a 2.5x Leupold on a combo gun.
My highest scopes are 2.5 inches above the bore, on an AR-15, an HK-91 with claw mounts, and a Brno 22F with claw mounts. I like shooting heads up, perhaps because I shot so much ISO free rifle and similar target rifles.

For hunting, there is no advantage to a low mount, even with the same zero range.

For example, if you have a typical .308 Win scoped 1.5 inches over the bore, and set the first zero at 27 yards, you will be on again about 200 yards, and a bit over 2 inches high at 100 yards, -3.5 at 300.

If you mount the scope 2.5 inches high, you just move the first zero to 50 yards, second zero stays at 200, it's only 1.5 inches high at 100 and at 150, and -3.5 at 300. So it's actually flatter shooting from 50 to 250 than the lower scoped rifle.

If you don't believe it, calculate one of your own .270s, .280 Rems, or .30-06s. I actually have several rifles in the same caliber, one modern scoped 1.5 inches high and some older ones with more drop on the comb stocked 2.0 inches or more ( for example, a T3 .30-06 and a 1950 Mannlicher Express ).

Quite so. I have mounted all my scopes high. I like shooting head up. It works very well for short stocked, low comb rifles (with low recoil - my 303 has a long stock with the scope mounted high and far forward. Join the half moon club ).

Oh, I also rest my chin on the comb at about 10 o'clock. Very quick, very stable. My method never caught on and I just kept on cleaning up the club 22 silhouette competitions. (No scope adjustments required either - the high scope mount renders the 22 flat shooting from 25 to 100 yds. Well, chickens dead on, turkeys dead on, aim a little low on the pig and a little high on the ram. But only a little and not actually necessary but it does increase the margin for error by placing the hit in the centre of the target).

As I get older, and usually use updated stocks with straighter combs-imo the reason why Kimbers SEEM to kick less-I have found that higher mounts that have my head more upright cause less strain and wear on my neck and shoulder. This is especially true when shooting from the bench. Don't know why and inch or so would make that much difference but it does.

Having my neck stretched foward seems to jam my vertebre more. Especilly with .30-06 and above recoil. The good thing is that I'm finally coming to the realization that with the exception of the nasty beasts-and I've never hunted them-below .30-06 recoil works very well.


Battue

Ideally, the rifle fits you and you could mount it with your eyes closed then open them and be looking right down the scope. Practically, with a factory stock, it should require minimal head movement.