Cold Weather Scope Mounting

[airedale]

So the other morning I went for hunt and the temps were in the high teens, I was bundled up good with warm clothes so I could stay out for a bit. I was carrying my new Model 70 6.5 PRC and spotted a Doe about 75 yds out in hardwoods meandering around grubbing for acorns. I pulled up on her with the rifle to take a look and found with all those heavy clothes on it changed the eye relief on my scope for full field of view, I had to crane my head forward in an unnatural shooting position to get a perfect full sight picture. For a standing shot I could make things work ok but for a quick shot where speed comes into play it would and could be a problem and cost you. I want a perfect sight picture immediately when the rifle is shouldered, no craning my neck for sure!

When I mounted the scope in the Fall I thought I had it back far enough and with the hunting clothes I am usually wearing everything came up good. I did not take into account hunting in colder temps wearing extra heavy thick clothes. It is a common mistake, most mount their scopes when the weather is pleasant and do most of their shooting in light clothes. You will get a surprise when you shoulder that same rifle wearing a lot of clothes.

Also some scopes are much more forgiving when it comes to eye relief having several inches to play with to get a perfect field of view. So the Winchester will be getting a different scope, I will be using a Burris Timberline on that rifle, with four inches of eye relief it is perfect for cold weather.

Al

[fasteddie]

On many scopes there is a dial at the back of the scope to change the Eye Relief . Some of mine do have that .

 

[TACC]

I thought that dial was to focus the reticle

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[suburbanfarmer]

21 hours ago, TACC said:

I thought that dial was to focus the reticle

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I agree, that is to focus the reticle. The eye relief changes depending on the zoom one changes.

Some scopes have adjustable objective lens to remove parallax.