Kirsten Joy Weiss’ latest video is on the subject of avoiding scope bite. Most of the time scope bite is nothing more than a slight pain and embarrassment. Other times it can be worse. A friend of mine, a veteran hunter and hunting magazine writer, has a large semi-circle scar above his eye from shooting a .30-06 in a weird position. He was camping in some remote mountain and his first aid skills were less than adequate, so he is now marked with a scar that just screams “scope bite” to every shooter he meets.

My own humiliating story is that I once had to go to the E.R. after a large scope bite wound would not stop bleeding 8 hours later, despite my best efforts. In my defense I was shooting a large caliber rifle with an experimental non-production scope that had very little eye-relief. When the scope eventually went on sale a year later, the eye relief was much improved.

This scope bite incident cost my insurance provider thousands of dollars and wasted a lot of my time … not to mention the humiliation of being at a gun range with blood pouring from above my eye.

Kirsten gives advice how to hold a gun, which is good advice, my advice is never buy a cheap scope that has too little eye relief, especially if you are putting it on rifle chambered in a high powered round (.30-06 and more powerful).