Air Arms Owners Club

I`ve an old Hawke Airmax 4-12x44 AO, it`s not a current model but how old, I don`t know, my problem is eye relief, I simply cant find the correct relief without my head bobbing up & down & back & forth every time I want to take a shot, is it me? have I done something stupid? I asked before on the old forum & a member suggested it may be cause I`m on maximum focal setting (I was plinking at 35-45m ATT) but I tried to set it to take care of the furry friend in my garden this weekend & realised, at 15m setting, it`s absoloutely no different!
is it broken? I hope not, I`m trying to track down a Kajagoogoo sticker to sell it to BBF! Don`t tell `im

You say it is 4-12. What have you set it at?
Simple logic - At 4 you will not struggle as the exit pupil will be nice and big. At 12, you are pushing the capacity of the lenses to their max and the exit pupil will be tiny. Literally blink and you will miss it.
My Sidewinder is a fixed 10x. No issues. I have another variable magnification Sidewinder which I also set at 10x for consistency. When I wind up the magnification, I have to hunt for the eye-relief.

Another thing you can do if you operate on a fixed mag - in you case, say 9x - is take the trouble to find it and then stick a 2mm x 10mm piece of sticking plaster (off a Bandaid or similar) to the comb of your rifle to tell your cheek where to put your face. You will soon get used to finding it by touch. On the S200 stock I made, I have a smooth rounded feature that I carved on the wood to help with my 'cheek weld' - look it up.

Correct and comfortable eye relief is normally down to scope mount and having it positioned so you get the same instant sight picture as you raise the gun to your eye in the shooting position most comfortable for your body and head. If the normal scope mounts don't provide this due to shortage of scope rail etc then you may need more specialist mounts such as reach forward or reach back. Ideally you should be able to shoulder your gun into position with your eye closed and then as soon as you open it get a true picture through the scope.

What has the scope been on in a past life? Springers? Have you tried shaking it? If it rattles even just slightly it may be that a lens element has loosened ever so slightly. That will make it appear just slightly out of focus. I used to be called "Scope Wrecker" as my BSA Lightning shook so many scope lens elements out of place.

I support Raj's comments as well. I tend to use 7x or even 6 on most scopes for everything. Most hunters do particularly live firearms users. Many just use 6x fixed mag scopes.. The higher the mag the harder to get a quick and accurate sight picture. Fine for target shooting where you have plenty of time to find the target. No good for hunting.

thanks guys, I knew you`d come through for me, will check settings tomorrow & post on here.

Another useful trick to help ensure that your eye relief is constant:
With your head in its natural comfortable position on the comb move the scope forward until you begin to see the black circle forming around the outer edge of the lens (i.e.reducing the sight picture) , then ease it back just a touch so that the black circle is only just appearing to you and fix the scope in that position. That way you can adopt the same eye relief position each time you shoot by utilising the black circle as a reference.
Another issue can be if the mounts are too high and you are having to hover over the comb making it very difficult to get a consistent head / eye position.

Sake-san wrote:Another useful trick to help ensure that your eye relief is constant:
With your head in its natural comfortable position on the comb move the scope forward until you begin to see the black circle forming around the outer edge of the lens (i.e.reducing the sight picture) , then ease it back just a touch so that the black circle is only just appearing to you and fix the scope in that position. That way you can adopt the same eye relief position each time you shoot by utilising the black circle as a reference.
Another issue can be if the mounts are too high and you are having to hover over the comb making it very difficult to get a consistent head / eye position.

it is definitely not the mounts, there is a gap under the front lens twixt scope & rifle, I know it`s there cos I can see daylight through it, a human hair, trust me, would be hard pushed to fit, so, not mounts.
It`ll be me, or summit I`ve done or set, it usually is!
thanks Sake.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=COoXVpGfXQE

BBF