Scope height

[Julian D]

Good morning all ,

Have been a lurker on here for a while now , great forum with a lot of interesting & informative threads .

I have a question regarding scope height ( which rings needed to clear the barrel ) , it is for a 20MOA Barnard rail , Barnard P and a True Flite heavy barrel , using the NF Competition scope .

Does anyone use this combination ? and what height rings are you using ? and what clearance do you have regarding the scope to barrel ?

I will be using the light weight NF 6 screw rings , just unsure of which ones to order . Would prefer the scope to be fairly close to the barrel , with just enough clearance to fit a mirage cover .

Any & all advice greatly accepted .

[Razer]

Personal experience only.
On my hunting rifles, which are usually shot in the standing position, the barrel is mainly at right angles(90 degrees) to the body, I use the lowest set of rings necessary to clear the barrel. This basically mimics open sights as you need to shoot as parallel to the barrel as possible.
With target shooting from the prone position(with rifle barrel approximately 10 to 20 degrees to the body) I use high rings as I find that the scope comes much more readily to the eye and it is a lot more comfortable to shoot the rifle.
Minimum clearance, in my opinion,is not a necessity with prone target shooting as you dial in the elevation value according to a known distance so your shots will then converge at the target centre.

[Peterla]

Hi Julian
I ma very close to your setup with a Barnard 20MOA rail heavy custom Truflite barrel and a NF 8-32 Bench rest
I use the NF ultralight 4 screws set at medium height that gives ma about 5mm clerance from my barrel
This is all by memory and If you would like me to check exact figures let me know.
It works well to have it close to barrel so you do not loose too much adjustment in your scope.

With that being said I did have a barrel block rifle that needed really high rings to clear the barrel block and it did not suffer to much either.

[williada]

Its interesting on another US site a bloke has mentioned compensation. The essence of the comment was that the higher the scope the less barrel lift and greater bag handling and conversely, the lower the scope, the worse bag handling but better compensation due to more barrel lift. Razers comments are good. I think proper head and body position are of primary concern.

[johnk]

I sometimes wonder what additional mirage & front bell distortion might occur with low set scopes on target rifles, enough so I don't if I can avoid it.

[williada]

Very good point John. I've just received my mirage shield from Tony.

[Julian D]

Thanks for the replies , so there might be more to it than just trying to keep the scope low on the barrel .

I will get a set of the high rings & see how I go .

[pjifl]

The only advantage of low scopes is that they are less vulnerable to damage.

Even when hunting, a higher mounted scope gives a more forgiving trajectory unless you are shooting sparrows.
Common beliefs are not always correct.

Peter Smith.

[Brad Y]

Is there also a potential link between scope height and torque control? Im no physicist, but would high scopes aid in controlling torque roll?

[williada]

Yep.