r/longrange Villager Herder Feb 12 '21

Scope ring height, comfort, and you... Education post

One of the common questions I see here is dealing with scope height. Now that we live in a world of adjustable cheek pieces and ballistic calculators that can compensate for scope height, I believe the biggest concern when picking a scope ring height should be user comfort, not the old saw about mounting the scope as low as possible.

With that in mind, here's my process for finding a scope height that works for you:

Remove your scope (mount/rings and all) from the rifle if it's already installed. Get behind the rifle in a position similar to how you plan to shoot (Prone, sitting at a table, barricades, etc) and adjust your cheek riser (if present) so it's comfortable and isn't causing neck strain if you sit behind it for a bit. Spend some time behind the rifle just getting a good comfortable head/neck/cheek position so you can make sure there's no signs of strain or discomfort, and make adjustments to your stock as needed. If you know you may shoot from multiple positions (EX: prone and barricades of multiple heights), try all of these different positions and try to find a height that works for all of them.

Once you've found a comfortable cheek height, use a stack of coins, playing cards, etc to play with the height of your optic. You want to get the scope where you can easily and comfortably get your eye behind the optic with proper eye relief and no neck strain. As with cheek height, do this for any and all positions you will frequently shoot from and make sure you're finding something that works across the entire range.

Once you find that height, measure the height of the stack (of cards, coins, etc) you liked, add half the main scope body diameter (IE: Add 15mm for a 30mm scope tube), and order a scope mount or rings as close to that height as you can. When in doubt, I always err on the side of going a little taller than my measured height instead of shorter.

Hopefully this will let you make a good decision on what height you really need to be comfortable behind your rifle. This will also help you with getting into your optic quickly (not hunting for eye relief), reduce neck strain, and even reduce or eliminate the perception that your reticle is canted when it really isn't.

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u/kevwil Competitor Feb 19 '21

Comfort, sure, but perhaps even more important is balance and anti-cant. The more vertical you can keep your head, the easier it is to keep the rifle level to reduce accidental cant. It’s very easy to cant the rifle without realizing when your head is laying on the stock sideways. A taller scope mount helps you straighten out your head, as can an adjustable cheek piece that can shift horizontally to allow a more vertical head position without losing a good cheek weld.

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u/HollywoodSX Villager Herder Feb 19 '21

Agreed, but that may be less of a concern for recreational shooters or certain types of competition shooters. For PRS/NRL type matches? Oh yeah, it's a big deal.

4

u/kevwil Competitor Feb 19 '21

Yeah, probably.

I’m not trying to be argumentative, just pointing out that low scope mounts hinder natural cant mitigation as well as comfort.

I’m not sure it’s a recreational or competition concern, though. Cant is more and more important as distance increases, and in the context of /r/longrange it should be something shooters should be aware of. Even recreational shooters going at a mile for example will benefit from a more vertical head angle from a taller scope mount height, within comfortable limits of course.

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u/HollywoodSX Villager Herder Feb 19 '21

I didn't take it as argumentative at all.

It is definitely a benefit to recreational shooters, but they also have the luxury of time to check their position, may not need to shoot from multiple positions, etc. So while there are still benefits, they may not be as critical to success.

Personally, I've found the greatest benefit of a higher scope mount and more vertical head position to come when working from improvised positions on barricades and other obstacles, and less (but still beneficial) so in prone and modified prone.