Scope eye - who has been cut by their scope?

My 404 has hit me a few times. First shot I fired out of it really cut me badly, mostly where brows meet between my eyes. I have very deep set eyes and prominent brow, so even with 4" eye relief I can still get whacked. My problem is I hold the 404 like I'm shooting my 30-06. Gotta hang onto it! And the stock is a bit short. That doesn't help!
 
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Don’t zoom in too much
 
yea, just had that happen this past Sept., had to work my way into tree branches to get a shot at a Cow Buffalo and did not had a solid hold on the rifle do to the branches using my 458 win mag and 420 gr CEB bullets at almost 2500 fps. Cut me between the eyes and the trigger guard nailed my trigger finger and thought I had broken it, but it just hurt real bad. But I got the Buffalo!
 
Knock on wood, but so far only my protective shooting glasses have ever been scoped, and that was only once. No pain, but definitely got my attention with how easily it happened.

Nowadays, most of the time when I'm shooting off sand bags on the bench, I position my off hand on top of the scope putting slight downward pressure to steady the rifle; which has the bonus effect of minimizing scope jump. I only do this when sighting in rifles or load work up, and even then only up to about 30 caliber non-magnum rifles.
 
Only twice.

Once was the 9.3x62, Zeiss Duralyt scope, I was prone, backpack as rest, trying to line up on a stag, on the opposite face of the gully, he was higher up than I was and it was freezing, pouring rain / sleet.

I knew I was clearly in breach of the second marksmanship principle - 'The weapon must point naturally at the target without any undue physical effort.' :rolleyes:

Took the shot. Got the stag, and a split eyebrow for my troubles.

To rub salt into the wound, when I finally reached him, he only had one antler.

But that antler became handles for 2 small knives, for me and TYB, a bit driver and a bottle opener. ;)

Some pictures here.

My only other eyebeating was from the .404 Jeffery, it was standing at a range, still not sure what, why or how I copped that one. Pic is in the 'Lighter Note' thread.

https://www.africahunting.com/threads/on-a-lighter-note.10537/post-971784
 
Yeah. Once or twice as a younger guy. Recently got a nice cut from a 375 in Zimbabwe. We were sneaking real low on a duiker and got in position. PH set up the sticks really low so I was crouched over the rifle. Dropped the duiker. Cut my eye. It won’t be the last time
 
I got smacked hard once by my old 50BMG. I knew that I crept up on the stock, but didn’t listen to my inner voice. Learning occurred…
 
More times than I care to think about, mostly customer guns with cheaper scopes and not fit to me.
Personal guns, just recently on Moz safari. 375hh at a bad angle on hippo follow up shot in a hurry.
 
I have a 404, no problems, a 458 wind bag with stout loads, no problems, 8x68S , no problems at all, my 223 culling rifle with a rubber ring on it……I bled like a stuck pig….
In my defence I was shooting cacky handed down low and my neighbour (who won’t listen to anyone) kept moving around in the shooting buggy as I’m trying to take the shot with me yelling at him to sit still. This is the same neighbour who shot the door of said buggy….twice in a row, saying he can just see the fox over the door , but ignoring me telling him the barrel was lower than the scope
Gumpy
 
No, but did have a close call with a 458 Lott. Was sighting it in off sticks with 500gr loads, I had it shouldered pretty good, but didn’t really put much much weight into it. First shot and I felt the scope touch my eyebrow - close call.
Thankfully the worst I had was while shooting a 416 WBY. When it recoiled, the scope caught the bill of my cap and it felt like somebody punched me in the forehead. I turned my hat around after that one.

The worst I have witnessed was at elk camp. A client Hunter brought a 7mm mag and was only comfortable shooting out to 200 yards or so with that setup. They spotted a big bull at 400 yards up the mountain so the guide handed him his 300 ultra which was zeroed at 400. Due to the incline and a bit more recoil than expected, it cut him really bad. They rolled into camp with a huge 6x6 and he had a big smile but his eyebrow was laid open and he was soaked in blood - had to go to the ER for stitches but he was happy as could be.
 
I have not been hit by a scope, but I got smacked by a shotgun barrel in the forehead as a 10 year old kid. First time out turkey hunting with dad, we are working a good long beard on a rainy day. He sits me against a few small trees and he hands me his old H&R 10 gauge single shot, tells me it’s just like my single shot .410 and he heads off behind me to pull the bird a bit closer. Well after a few more minutes in the rain the bird comes in range and I pull up(with great effort I might add) on him a cock the hammer back, when he drops his fan I let him have it and as I did that the now soaking wet slippery wood stock slips up out of my grasp and the whole gun slides up and smacks me in the forehead knocking me over. My dad hearing the shot comes back and sees me and the turkey flopping on the ground and starts laughing. That old 10 gauge hits hard on both ends. One of my fondest memories.
 
Yeah just recently sighting in my new Heym 88b 375 h&h. I had been shooting it no problem off the bench, then forgot to hold it firmly and it really smacked me in my brow. Blood on the gun and bench. Left a blood trail to my truck. I got some paper towels and bandaids. Cleaned the rifle up then myself. I've double lunged whitetail deer that bled less
 
Never. I've always mounted scopes properly, whether they had 3" or 3 1/2" eye relief. My rifles have been .375H&H's - 3 of those. 2 .458 2" and one .458 Alaskan(my wildcat for a Mauser action). That one ran 500gr. Hornady's at 2,200fps and weighed 8 1/2 pounds - 4X Leupold on that one.
I think people who crush their cheekbones on the comb & climb over their thumbs are more likely to get cut with a scope ocular lens. Once shot a .505 Barnes Supreme on an 8 1/2 pound rifle - standing. The rifle spun me around like a weathercock. I was strong but only 180pounds then. Scope was another 4X Leuy.
 
Grammar school, high school and college I could not afford a scope for my rifle. When I became more affluent someone warned me to watch out for steep angles up or down and I have been careful or lucky despite shooting a lot of heavy recoil rifles. Probably just lucky.
 
Never been scoped by my own rifles, despite many rounds through some hard kickers. Got cut once with my uncle's lightweight T/C Contender 45/70 carbine with stout loads and a scope that was not set to proper eye relief for me.
 
Yep, heaps of times... a few on the bench and a few in the field.

Only ever been scoped with my .458's or my 425 Express.

The last .458WM I had before my current one probably got me the best.
I was shooting the 550gn Woodleigh at 2100fps, and I was aiming at a small white fallow.
I got the fallow, but the rifle also got me.
When I worked out the recoil for that particular load in that particular rifle, it came at a hair over 80ft/lbs - but the funny thing is I didn't even feel it. It was only when my mate pointed at my face and starting laughing I realised I got bit.

The 425 Express got me a beauty too. I was aiming that at another fallow, and it was a tough shot.
I only had a small window through the bush to aim at, and I was concentrating so much on trigger squeeze, etc... I must've forgotten to hang on properly.
Not only did I wear one, but the rifle almost torqued out of my hands...
And because I missed you can be sure I felt that one... (n)

Actually that would've been the worst because even though I was out in the field hunting, I actually felt the recoil – and definitely felt the scope.

Russ
 
roklok said:
Never been scoped by my own rifles, despite many rounds through some hard kickers. Got cut once with my uncle's lightweight T/C Contender 45/70 carbine with stout loads and a scope that was not set to proper eye relief for me.
Click to expand...
Light weight .45/70's can be very violent. Had a friend with a Ruger #3 in .45/70 ask me to load him up the top loads with 500gr. Hornady's @1,800fps. In a 5 1/2 or 6pound rifle, they were vicious. Iron sights only. Took him years to go through those, usually at the range from people who thought they'd like to shoot that rifle. That was a retina ratler.
 
I’ve done it more than once….probably at least a dozen or so times over the past 50 years.

Worst case happened almost 30 years ago. Shooting a 300 Win Mag, shooting steeply uphill in NZ, on a thar hunt. I literally knocked myself out. Woke up covered in blood. Initially thought the rifle had blown up.

Good thing was I killed the thar with the shot. I wish I could find the photo.
 
this happens from time to time
maybe an awkward stance make u press forward
or some people dont like to tuck the gun tight into their shoulder, various reasons
but it happens to a lot of people and tbh sort of a right of passage

i got a very slight smiley shooting the 375 in Michigan at my get together in february


leupold have one of longest eye relief compared to a lot of scopes
i really dont know why all scopes dont have a rubber ring on rear lens, this would surely make it more of a bump than a cut
 
Never had this trouble until recently. I have unfortunately discovered what most of you already know - a lot of drop in the stock is a recipe for this, especially combined with supported/uphill position like prone.

My beloved Blaser D99 drilling has a stock designed for shotgunning/iron sights, not primarily scope use like it's BD-14 relative. In the smaller cartridges not a big deal. My 9.3x74r barrel finally arrived after 4 years of waiting on Blaser to finish making it, one molecule at a time I guess.

The 9.3 barrel makes it the lightest of all since they seem to use the same barrel profile for everything, 222 up to 9.3. Another factor, using a greater quantity of slower powder in reloads than typical factory ammo. The felt recoil isn't hard. Looking at the bore axis of the on-top rifle barrel configuration, I see the problem. No matter how you grip the thing, in certain positions the scope is going to bump you in the face. I haven't been cut but it is still annoying.

Look how high the bore axis is on the D99 compared to the butt (for reference, the rifle barrel is the very top one) and a Win M70. No wonder it flips like a handgun with heavy bullets!
 

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