Help....my wife cant see consistently through th scope.

[adamjp]

The Boyd's At One stock is great for women as you can adjust the cheek weld and LOP.

And yet it is a stock designed for the male body, lacking several features that are necessary for the female body to fit a rifle well.

 

[M77Fan]

So my husband sent me this string, and I had to register before I could comment. I know this is a little late, but if your wife has a rifle that she can at least shoot decently and is not a pipsqueak she should take hers instead of struggling with your ill-fitting rifle. A .270 and up is fine for elk, and I know a number of people who use and are successful with .243s, but of course shot placement and not too long a shot are important when at more marginal calibers. That would be the quickest fix. But after this hunt, get her a rifle that fits her. There has been a lot of good input here.

Trying to share a rifle unless it is with your twin, simply does not work well.

But here is the problem, aside from trying to use a rifle set up custom for someone else. Eye relief. Whether it is too great or not enough you get black circles, blackouts, part black, problems with parallax, and loss of accuracy. Yeah, I am not a six footer, but years ago, when I was struggling to run my bolt with my rifle on my shoulder, and crawling the stock to even see out of my 4X scope, I took a drastic measure. I took my chopbox to my stock. Shorter length of pull made a huge difference. Suddenly I got smaller groups, the felt recoil was less, I didn't get a stiff neck after shooting, and I could work the bolt to more quickly hit the "charging buffalo milk jugs". Nobody large had better every shoot my .338 though! My 6 foot 4 inch nephew had the opposite problem with his setup when he arrived here for a deer hunt. Blackout, black edges, etc.. Moving the scope forward to give him proper eye relief fixed that problem and he went on to get a nice buck.

Fit is it. Another issue, the photos of you both sitting at the dining room table really don't show nearly enough about how either of you holds a rifle. Surely your left hand is not where you have it when shooting from a field position. And your wife's position does not look at all relaxed or even what she probably does when shooting. But if she really does have to raise her head up like that to see through the scope, of course she can't get a decent cheek weld or a consistent one. How high are those rings and bases anyway? And despite her size, she almost looks like she is crawling up to the scope to see out of it.

Over time, I have found a lot of combs that don't work for me, some have hurt me, and I have a collection of old M77 Rugers for just that reason. That specific comb height and low bases allows me to see through the scope without straining to do so. Also true for other women I know with similar short faces (forehead to chin distance). Adding a riser can help with that, and if it works is a simple non-permanent fix on a stock. Straining leads to inconsistency and thus inaccuracy. And by the way, once the stock length is correct and I can get the butt where it belongs, my female anatomy is not in the way of the heel of the stock.

Most of the current crop of ladies' rifles are actually downsized, which I am pretty sure a 6 foot slender woman does not need. It could be worth a look, but the length of the setup may need to allow her to get the scope farther away from her rather than closer. Normally I would be counseling most of my women friends to try a shorter stock of a youth or ladies' rifle but not necessarily here.

If you put stock crawling together with too low a comb, and high bases, and add too much forend weight for a slender lady to hold up, you are looking for a lot of frustration. Your rifle must have a bipod since neither of you seemed to be holding on to the forend, but that would just make it all that heavier if shooting from a less than optimum field position.

I hope you guys can get something working. This should be a fun trip and a great adventure. Elk hunting is something that once it gets in the blood never leaves. Even as we get more decrepit . There is nothing quite like elk country in the fall!

 

[M77Fan]

One last thought. For a cold weather hunting rifle, you do need to consider that bulky cold weather clothing will affect LOP and distance from the scope, so that should be factored into a final fitting to get the eye relief issue fixed on whatever rifle your wife gets set up. Pack straps with much padding will do the same. I hope she can find something that works well and she really likes.

 

[DSheetz]

M77Fan well stated You do well for explaining things and seeing what I as a man can't .

 

[Coldfinger]

My wife love to hunt but she has been getting very frustrated because she can't see through a scope consistently. She missed the opportunity on a buck last year because she couldn't see through the scope. Its bad enough that she's not eaven excited about our elk hunt next week.

Is there a somewhere she can take some shooting classes and get professionally fitted so she can enjoy going again.

I have tried to help but I dont know how and it normally ends in a fight, from what I can see she is shouldering the gun to low and can't get a check weld but she says its comfortable there. I'm going to make a foam riser for the stock at work today.

You guys are better men than I!! I tried to teach my wife to handle and shoot a 9mm pistol I got her for her birthday. Long story short I'm an impatient teacher and someone hopefully got a deal on a like new XD9.

 

[Rum River]

DSMITH1651,
The Weatherby Camilla stock features tuned to your wife's physical size will be very helpful. Fyi, Savage has been making their 'Lady Hunter' model with a lot of the same ideas and is less expensive.

Lot of good responses on this thread; Eye dominance, fit, coaching, etc.

My wife and I have gone through the same experience. Me thinking that I'm asking sensible questions, where in our case it caused confusion/frustration for her. She is no stranger to guns and shooting whatsoever, but the terminology kept tripping us up. Often turned out we agreed on an approach but the actual words used in the conversation didn't match.
We managed to get through it all without attorneys, but more than once we had to just drop it and try again on a different day.

Sounds like you're making progress, have a great hunt!

 

[joseytoo]

Too late now, BUT, You need to spend a lot of practice time! She has no cheek weld, is WAY too far back on the stock, and it looks to me lie she is afraid of the rifle. Get a .22 with a good scope and get some bench therapy. Lots of it! She needs to get up on the stock and settle in IMHO.

 

[Lenny Foffa]

Women usually /often need a higher comb. Google the Weatherby Camila Series of women's rifles, and look at the very high comb on those rifle. there is U Tube video explaining why they did that. Try a check rest to add 1/4 inch or more to the comb height. By the way , did you use Low, or Medium ring heights???

 

[DSMITH1651]

DSMITH1651,
The Weatherby Camilla stock features tuned to your wife's physical size will be very helpful. Fyi, Savage has been making their 'Lady Hunter' model with a lot of the same ideas and is less expensive.

Lot of good responses on this thread; Eye dominance, fit, coaching, etc.

My wife and I have gone through the same experience. Me thinking that I'm asking sensible questions, where in our case it caused confusion/frustration for her. She is no stranger to guns and shooting whatsoever, but the terminology kept tripping us up. Often turned out we agreed on an approach but the actual words used in the conversation didn't match.
We managed to get through it all without attorneys, but more than once we had to just drop it and try again on a different day.

Sounds like you're making progress, have a great hunt!

Same here

 

[DSMITH1651]

Women usually /often need a higher comb. Google the Weatherby Camila Series of women's rifles, and look at the very high comb on those rifle. there is U Tube video explaining why they did that. Try a check rest to add 1/4 inch or more to the comb height. By the way , did you use Low, or Medium ring heights???

Low rings, we have added 5/8" to the comb

 

[Stgraves260]

Why did she have to remove them?

I wear contacs and don't have to remove them for scope use. Though, as my eyes have changed as I've gotten older, I've sure had to make adjustments to the ocular piece for proper focus on the diopter setting.

I thank it depends on wether or not you are near sited or far sighted. I dont wear contacts so I can't really say. She is farsighted. So she can see thangs up close with no contacts or glasses. All I know is buy her taken her contacts out she no longer has issues. Tell her to try it. It's free. Everyone is different. I hope it works. Please let me know if it does. I want y'all to enjoy your hunting and shooting experience together.

 

[Stgraves260]

Why did she have to remove them?

I wear contacs and don't have to remove them for scope use. Though, as my eyes have changed as I've gotten older, I've sure had to make adjustments to the ocular piece for proper focus on the diopter setting.

Set the scope up for her on the middle power. Meaning if it's a 4-16 put it on 8 power. Then on the eye relief turn it all the way in. Now move the scope forward and backwards till it is the most clear for her. Then tighten the scope down. You should have quit a bit of adjustment left.

 

[DSMITH1651]

Thanks for the help guys, we shot all 3 elk we could. She shot hers at 450 1 shot....a very happy woman

 

[DSheetz]

That is the good part . Glad she got hers !