Eye Relief

We're not talking about sunglasses or that stuff you squirt in your eye to get the red out. In the wide world of scopes, eye relief is a measurement. It has to do with how far back from the eyeguard your eye can be and still see a full sight picture. Eye relief scopes fall into three categories:

• Standard eye relief scopes, which is the category most riflescopes fall into.
• Medium eye relief scopes, for shotguns with interchangeable barrels or for "scout" rigged rifles.
• Long eye relief is for scopes on pistols that give you a full field of view at arm's length.

Short eye relief can be dangerous. The back of the scope could hit you in the eyebrow when you fire a shot. Ouch! So, when you choose a scope, go easy on your eyebrows and make sure you've got plenty of eye relief.

*If you wear glasses, eye relief is one of the most important considerations in choosing a scope/eyepiece combination.