Cheek piece adjustment/eye relief/sight picture questions

[chowder]

I have another thread going about poor grouping with my new Savage Long range Hunter 308 and this problem has made me aware that I do not have a clear understanding of the proper relationship between the cheek piece, scope mounting position w/ respect to eye relief, and sight picture.
This is the first rifle I've ever owned with a cheek piece and quite frankly I'm not real sure how I'm supposed to use it for maximum benefit - what is the ideal position to adjust to and how does this affect the mounting of the scope in terms of eye relief,etc.
In my current configuration I do find it to be a struggle to get a 'natural, relaxed' sight picture with good eye relief and be able to concentrate on my target/reticle cross hairs. Any standard recommendations would be appreciated and I apologize if I overlooked some thing that was presented in the 'guide line threads' at the beginning of this forum. Thanks, -Andy

 

[Natty Bumpo]

The benefit of a cheek piece is if you have a scope mounted up high because of a large objective. You can raise the comb to get your eye in line with the scope. If you've got a 40mm scope with low rings, you may not need any added height with the cheek piece. Move it up and down and see what's most comfortable. Close your eyes when you get behind the rifle. After you're settled in, open them. Ideally, you should be in line with the line of sight through the scope.

If you plan on shooting mostly prone, adjust your scope for eye relief for this position. For most people, the scope should be a little farther forward for prone than is necessary for offhand or kneeling. Get comfortable behind the rifle, and with the rings loosened, move the scope back and forth until you get the complete sight picture. That is, no shadowing around the margins of the sight picture. If you get shadowing on the bottom of your sight picture, you may need to raise the cheek piece to bring your head up a bit and vice versa.

 

[lamiglas]

In the article section checkout fitting the rifle by shawn carlock he gets into how to set your cheek piece. Its a great agun)gun)gun)prticle

 

[elkhntr1]

Have you considered using the "shadowed area" around the edges of the sight picture to insure you have a good cheek weld?

I watched an episode (#51) on Long Range Pursuit that offered a hint to insure you have a good cheek weld each time you shoot. It suggested that when you adjust the eye relief on your scope, leave a little shadowing in your sight picture so that you can use this as a reference to both insure you have a proper cheek weld forward and back and side to side. The premiss behind this is that proper cheek weld plays a huge role in accuracy (of course) and this reference point will insure you have that each time you shoot.

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[D.ID]

I have found I shoot best if I can "sleep" on my gun, totally relaxing my neck and letting the weight of my head confirm cheek weld. If you can't go prone, close your eyes for a minute or two totally relaxed, then open your eyes to a perfect scope picture. Keep adjusting till you can, LOP has a lot to do with this as well. All those tension, stretching for that last bit of eye relief for instance will make truly repeatable position impossible. To those who say it does not matter on a rifle like it does on a shotgun.......................They are wrong.