Scope bell and barrel spacing...

[Redneck 7]

Hey everyone. I finally scoped my .300 SAUM with a Zeiss I bought off the forum. I know it’s a 38mm optic but seems like I can’t go lower then medium rings or else the bolt handle will be hitting variable objective lense. It seems to be a 3/8” gap or so just eye balling it from the rifle barrel to the front objective.

I got thinking and my longe range rifle has medium rings and a 8.5-25x50 Leupold VX3i LRP FFP on it with a 20 moa base with maybe a 1/2” gap. I bought cheap cheap rings online to see how much it will drop with lows. It “looks a lot better” but doesn’t matter since my cheek weld is adjustable. My other hunting rifles are all as low as they can go and they work great.

I’m just curious how many of you guys and gals like the front bell as low to the barrel as possible or if it matters to you? Do you care how it looks or no? It will all function the same if you can get a good a repeatable cheek
Weld everytime.

[elkhunter11]

Your post is a little confusing, the objective is at the opposite end from the bolt, so if anything, there would be a clearance issue between the bolt and the eyepiece. Is the 3/8" clearance between the objective and the barrel, or between the eyepiece and the bolt? The height difference between low and medium rings is usually in the .100" to .120" range ,depending on the rings. Other than the early CZ 527, I haven't had issues with bolt/eyepiece clearance. Then again, if you add a larger bolt handle, that can cause clearance issues with other rifles. I don't have adjustable combs on my hunting rifles, and using 42-44 mm scopes , I generally have around .080" to.120" clearance between scope and barrel. I find that with my face, that allows a proper cheack position on the stock.

[Redneck 7]

I just called both ends the objective is all. Im just curious if anyone else’s set ups leave a bigger gap between the barrel and bell then they’d like.

This rifle is a 700 with typical stock bolt and there’s probably 3mm clearance when cycling the bolt handle and variable eye piece. I can’t go low rings because the bolt handle but the 38mm bell says I could. I don’t mind the bigger gap it’s just it looks funny. Same on my 700 Magpul I shoot for long range.

[DiabeticKripple]

i dont care how it looks, or what the clearance is.

all i care about is if i shoulder the rifle with my eyes closed, when i open them i have a perfect field of view through the scope.

you shouldnt be adjusting your cheek weld to the scope, but the other way around.

[Redneck 7]

All my rifles I have great cheek weld and proper field of view. My long range on the other hand is adjustable to accommodate +MOA rails and 30mm + scope tubes.

[mattthegorby]

With my rifles I like the scope as low as possible so it minimizes the size of cheek rest I need... and ya, I think it looks weird with high rings.

My CZ 452 was a struggle and I ended up with rings too high and a big cheek rest, but am living with it as I am going to switch it back to irons.

[roger]

to put a swaro with a Near alphamount on my wby mark 5 i had to mill flat spot on the top of the ron smith bbl to get it to avoid conflict.
now it has two business cards of gap

[260 Rem]

On sporter rifles used to hunt, I prefer as little clearance as possible because I tend to “hunch over” the stock when shooting from field positions. Shooting from a bench, I prefer the scope to sit higher because I practice better “shooting posture” with my head more upright and only a very light “touch” with my cheek.

[Redneck 7]

Originally Posted by 260 Rem

On sporter rifles used to hunt, I prefer as little clearance as possible because I tend to “hunch over” the stock when shooting from field positions. Shooting from a bench, I prefer the scope to sit higher because I practice better “shooting posture” with my head more upright and only a very light “touch” with my cheek.

That’s a good point, depending how you shoot and such. When I set up my long range rifles, I’ll do it laying prone because that’s how I shoot that rifle most of the time.

[7 REM MAG]

European scopes tend to have have larger eye pieces, if you're running something like a rem 700 with a 90 degree bolt lift you'll run into the bolt/scope clearance issue before you run into scope/barrel clearance issues, unless you're running something with a 50 or 56mm objective.

Im running a leica ER with a 42mm obj on my model 700, its mounted as low as i can get it, on a 20 moa leupold base with leupold rings and my bolt clears the ocular by less than 1/8 of an inch. It would be nice if it were lower, but thats the way it goes.