Eye relief with Vortex Viper 6x24..........

[Catahoula]

Hey Guys,
Just got back from hunting whitetails in MT with my son-in-law. First hunt with my custom 240 Weatherby. Shoots 90 grain Accubonds very well @ 3400 fps. Scope is a Vortex Viper ffp 6x24. I am really disappointed with the eye relief and the fact that you have to have the **** focus set almost perfectly to get a clear picture. Anyone else experiencing these problems with Vortex? I am probably going to try to sell and go back to the long proven Leupolds.
Thanks for any advice,
Kirk

 

[kcebcj]

I have the 4-16 not a 6-24 so can't speak directly to your problem but here is what I know about mine. The eye focus is used to get the reticle clear. You do that by looking at the sky or some solid light colored object and adjust. The parallax adjuster is used to take the movement out of the reticle and get the target in focus. If the target is out of focus parallax will be evident when moving your head up and down or side to side. As for the eye relief I have to creep into the scope just a hair on 16 powder and with the 24 it's probably more. I think most scopes are that way some better than others.

Now on my scope the distance numbers on the parallax dial usually do not agree with the range finder so I just dial till the reticle is still and that is usually somewhere close to a crystal clear target.

 

[westcliffe01]

With the FFP, there is no absolute need to use Max magnification, you could back it off a bit and the exit pupil will get bigger ? Why was running 24x so important ?

 

[tikkat3270wsm]

i own the same scope, and have not had a problem. The only thing i did was put a raised cheep piece (bought from Len here at LRH). yes i have to slide back and forth at really high power, buy unless I am shooting paper at really long range, 12-16 is all the further i turn it up. If you think there is something wrong with it, give them a call, they have great customer service. Lifetime replacement, no question asked. As for Leupolds, They do not have many FFP sakes a big difference.copes. Now , if your not shooting over 400, it will not matter to much, but at extream ranges, it makes a big difference
.
Just my 2 cents
Craig

 

[westcliffe01]

Another potential problem that you may have experienced is installing the scope in warmer weather and judging the eye relief with relatively few layers of clothing on, then going hunting in winter several months later with several extra layers of clothing and suddenly you can't get your face close enough to the scope.....

I just had that experience today with a 22 mag rifle that I installed the scope on at home in a heated house and then (dressed for the outdoors) found the eye relief too long and was getting a nice big black ring around the image in the scope.

 

[bigngreen]

The eye box on the Vortex can be a little tight at high mag but if your head position is correct it should be no issue. I'm assuming your talking about the parallax knob as the focus, it is fast on the Vortex, try turning it past the infinity mark to the stop then dial it back down till it's perfect but don't go past. If it seems ultra touchy talk to Vortex cause if thing have an issue in there they can get really touchy and hard to get a clear image.
We've replaced all our Leupold's with Vortex, never going back!!!

 

[joeycoates]

I have the same scope and have no issues with the eye box, but after having used a Nikon Monarch 6-24x50 that has next to a non-existent eye box the Viper PST is a joy. I do not know that it is as good as my Leupold VXIII 6.5-20, but it is still pretty decent to me. There is definitely a sweet spot, but I have not had any issues with it.