How high should the scope sit from the barrel

[lewiss009]

Hey guys
quick question, i just recently purchased a viper pst 6-24X 50 mm. I'm mounting it on a 700 5R and I purchased leupold pwr high rings. When I put the scope on the rings, there's half an inch of clearance with the scope covers on it. The difference between the high and medium is .1 of an inch. Do you guys feel I'd be able to get away with using medium rings without damaging the scope and have enough room to have flip caps?
Thanks
Lewis

 

[arcstarter]

ideally you want as little room between the objective of your scope and barrel without it touching. almost all of my scopes have less then a 1/4" of clearance

 

[TDC]

ideally you want as little room between the objective of your scope and barrel without it touching. almost all of my scopes have less then a 1/4" of clearance

This...

TDC

 

[CROWCA]

I would suggest how you hold the rifle would dictate the height of the rings!

 

[nemesisincanada]

I use leupold lows on my 5r, with a Bushnell elite Tactical 5-24x50mm, this gives enough clearance at both the ocular and objective ends with a 20MOA base. It also gives me the best chance of a close, repeatable cheek weld. The HS Precision stock does not take kindly to high rings in my opinion. do yourself a flavor and slam that scope.

 

[ultimate_monkey]

ideally you want as little room between the objective of your scope and barrel without it touching.

almost this, if you have your scope nice and low thats great, BUT if being low gives you a ####ty cheek weld and your cranking your neck in all sorts of funn ways to see clearly threw the optics then you better off to go with higher rings

 

[nemesisincanada]

A lot of shooters think a cheek weld is there chin.

 

[dizzy]

The minimum is 3 mm, a few sheets of paper. The reason for this is the movement of the barrel during firing can actually hit the bell creating a lot of problem, also there needs to be that much space so heat off the barrel does not transfer so easily to the scope, which can again cause problems. Anything above 3 mm is your choice.

 

[paperslayer]

There are pros and cons.

On the pro side, the higher the scope, the less likely you are to cant the gun when firing. you may also find that it is easier to look through. Many top shooters use little or no weld between face and stock.

On the con side, it can be difficult to look through, and in having scope and rifle bore so far apart, the parallax error is mutliplied with shorter rang shooting and scope ajustment changes

 

[Sargeant Slaughter]

Delete

 

[roberto mervici]

pending of the shape of the stock and the morphology of the shooter and as other stated as lover as possible keeping the mating of the cheek and stock perfectly natural and confortable as possible.
Shoulder your rifle with your eye close, open your eye you need to be on line, if you need to stretch your neck to be in line your scope is high .

 

[dead meat]

Clearance of the bolt on a bolt action rifle is also another consideration. Lots of variables to consider when mounting a scope, one size defintely doesn`t fit all.