What is Eyepiece for Rifle Scope

You sighted a deer so you set yourself with your rifle in the proper position to nail your shot. You’ll also need to turn or adjust your eyepiece until you get a sharp sight. If you’re a newbie, you may get that buck fever when you sight your first game and you may be wondering how to adjust your eyepiece. So, if you want to know more on what the eyepiece for a rifle is, we’ve got you covered here.

Getting to know more about your rifle scope can help sharpen your hunting skills to a great extent. So, for you to have that top-notch hunting skill, let’s look into what is an eyepiece in a rifle scope. We will also dig into how you can skillfully adjust your eyepiece so you can get that clean and sharp reticle for your eyesight.

What is Eyepiece for Riflescope all About?

There are various parts found in our rifle and the eyepiece is one essential part to look at. So, the eyepiece of your rifle scope is that part that holds the ocular lens of a riflescope. Furthermore, you can also call it the ocular lens.

The majority of rifle scope has dials on the eyepiece. Now, this dials enable you to easily adjust and focus the scope of the reticle so that you can obtain that clean and sharp line of target.

The fact is that a riflescope usually features two different lenses on it. These two lenses include the objective lens which is the bigger lens, and the ocular lens which is the smaller lens.

So, the objective lens is that lens located at the back of the rifle scope when you aim the scope and it is this lens that receives light from the targeted image. Then the ocular lens which can also be referred to as the eyepiece is the part that can be found close to the eye of the shooter.  

Let’s briefly look into what a fast-focus eyepiece is because this term will further help us understand the ability of different eyes possessed by various individuals to focus their riflescopes.

Understanding What Fast focus Eyepiece is

So, when we talk about a fast focus eyepiece, we’re simply referring to that adjustable portion of the eyepiece. And this adjustable portion is used to give a clear sight of the reticle to the shooter eye.

Now, various individuals seeing capabilities vary and some people even have different eye problems. For instance, some individuals need prescription glasses to see properly and some may not require glasses to see well. This implies that people that depend on prescription glasses will have a different reticle view from someone that doesn’t require glasses.

For this reason, it’s crucial we take account of these things and set our rifle scope to suit the view of our eye. Remember that this focused eyepiece enables us to view the reticle very clearly and sharply.

Other Main Parts of a Rifle Scope

As we’ve mentioned, apart from the eyepiece, there are various parts on a rifle scope and these parts work hand in hand to give you a sharp target. Let’s briefly look into some of these parts:

·         Ocular lens: You can find the ocular lens situated in the eyepiece. This lens is a small lens and it is closest to your eye when you aim the rifle scope.

·         Objective lens: Apart from the ocular lens, we also have the objective lens. This is the second lens and it is bigger than the other (ocular lens). It is situated far away on the other side of the rifle when you aim to shoot. This lens helps gather light from the surrounding target and this enables you to clearly view the target and the surroundings.

·         Objective bell: This part is a piece of hardware that helps hold the objective lens in place. This objective bell also works hand in hand with the objective lens to gather light and produce an excellent image for you to view.

·         Scope tube: The scope tube is also referred to as the main tube and it is the body of the riflescope.

·         Power ring: This part enables you to adjust the magnification on the riflescope.

·         Elevation turret: A metal knob for precision adjustment.

·         Windage turret: This is also a metal knob that enables precision adjustment.

·         Parallax error adjustment: This is a third adjustment part apart from windage and elevation turret.

Get to Know the Steps on How to Adjust the Eyepiece

We’ve outlined the process of how to adjust the eyepiece for you to get that clean and crisp reticle, so, read on for some insight on this:

Step 1 – Mount your rifle scope

The first step is to mount your rifle scope and try to look through the scope with your eye. You will need to make sure you have a sharp reticle when you have a look into the scope. Some adjustment to the scope’s diopter setting may be required to achieve this adjustment so follow the next step.

Step 2 – Adjusting the scope

To begin your adjustments, you will need to wear your prescription glasses if you always wear them when you shoot. This is simply because the way you view the scope with eyeglasses will differ from how you view it without eyeglasses. So, when you use any extra optical aid before you set your scope, it will change the reticle’s clear view.  

Now, for a rifle scope that has lock ring, aim to allow the knot that locks the knob to slide freely on the slides of the eyepiece. And you can achieve this by rotating the body in a counter-clockwise motion. Doing this will enable you to have access to the setting of the diopter and it will be pretty easy for you to make the necessary adjustments.

However, if the scope you have is fast-focus and lacks a lock system, just move on to the step that follows.

Step 3 – Focusing the reticle to suit your eye

Now, you will proceed to focusing the reticle on your suit eye. This can only be achieved by pointing the scope at a blank image. You can point it to a blank wall or aim at the sky. This is because we want to focus on only the reticle and the reticle needs to be the sharpest thing we see.

If the reticle isn’t focused to your eye or if you point the reticle to a target, the reticle won’t be razor sharp. You will only see that target you’re aiming at because your eye has been lured to focus on the target rather than the reticle.

Furthermore, as you’re looking at the scope, avoid looking at it for too long. Aim to briefly view the reticle for about 3 seconds to 5 seconds maximum. This is because looking at the reticle for too long can compel you to begin to correct the reticle’s sharpness and we don’t want that. We only want to obtain the sharpest image at the first glance. It’s not our goal to lure or force the eye to readjust the image being viewed.

Step 4 – Diopter setting

Once you’re done glancing into the reticle, continue by rotating the setting of the diopter. So, slowly turn it and have a peek into it again. Continue doing this step till you obtain a very clean image.

Then proceed by turning the setting of the diopter till you get a blurry reticle. Doing this allows us to be aware of the point where the image being viewed enters or goes out of focus. So, when you notice that you are out of focus point, simply return the setting a bit until you’ve obtained that sharp and clean reticle image once again.

Extra Points to Take Note When Adjusting the Eyepiece on Rifle Scope

Here are some more points to take note when you’re in the process of adjusting the rifle scope to suit your eye:

·         In the process of adjusting the fast focus eyepiece, make sure this adjustment is done at a low magnification. For instance, when you want to adjust the fast-focus and you’re making use of a 1-9x magnification scope, it’s necessary for the eyepiece to be set at 1x magnification. Once you set the diopter to low magnification, this will further help in producing a clean and sharp reticle when you increase the magnification.

·         For scopes that the eyepiece has lock ring, we recommend you lock it. However, if this doesn’t work, just take some caution whenever you’re using the rifle scope so that the setting of the diopter doesn’t change. Once you’ve achieved that accurate position setting of your eyepiece suitable for your eye, desist from changing the setting of the diopter. You may only modify the setting if the sharpness of your vision has changed.·         Also take note that most riflescopes have their diopter setting ranging from -2 to +2. Therefore, for individuals that are short sighted, it’s necessary you spin the eyepiece in a counterclockwise direction towards the (-) direction. On the other hand, individuals that are longsighted will need to spin the eyepiece in a clockwise motion toward the (+) direction.