Man that will bring stars to your eyes. Always heard of getting hit with a scope eye piece, just seemed like a silly thing to have happen. Fortunately, I was wearing glasses, otherwise it would have probably hurt worse.

Kind of strange the way it happened. I installed a new scope on my Dad’s 30-06 and of course the positioning did not suit him. I patiently worked with him and by the time we were done, the scope was moved back as far as possible. I don’t know if his neck is getting shorter or maybe the eye relief on this particular scope is different. Probably his neck because when I put the gun up, I have to move my head back a little.

Anyway, he got it sighted in at the make shift range we put together at the farm. It was a long 50 yards and I promised that I would throw a couple down the range at the 100 yard mark when I got a chance.

I finally got that chance and set up my shooting bench (see product review, this issue), checked the distance with my Yardage Pro (see review) and it showed it to be 97 yards. close enough. Had a real nice little group going when, this flame throwing, muzzle jumping thunder stick popped me in the face. The cross piece above the nose rest on the glasses left a nice little slice about half an inch long across my forehead. Surrounding counties, heard the gun and the ensuing string of verbiage.

I guess I could blame Remington, isn’t that the way things are done these days? See, my Ruger 77 MKII Target with the 26 inch barrel and beavertail forend, that I shoot all the time, does not jump off of the front rest when it goes bang, so I don’t hold it down. However, Dad’s 700 Remington does jump. I was not holding it down.

The next shot fired took some extended concentration. When no more blood was shed, I got over it but I learned a lesson. Let the short necked cuss shoot his own gun. There were a couple of other lessons here but I bet you have already figured that out.

Sore

Bill Wade

Side Note:

The string of stitches on a co-workers forehead this week reminded me that it could have been worse. The stitchee was introduced to shooting over the weekend when the shooting party handed her a scoped 50 cal muzzleloader. When the gun slid off her shoulder under recoil, her forehead was formally introduced to the eyepiece. She told me she would like to try shooting again sometime but maybe something with a little less recoil and no scope. Sounds reasonable to me.