I've been using an ATN 3-9x55mm on my plinker, and let me tell you the eye relief absolutely stinks!  It's got a nice, wide field of vision, but it's pointless when you lose the picture so easily.

Thinking about moving to a Simmons Aetec or other mid-level scope.  Any reviews of the Simmons'?  Or any suggestions?

Thanks

I have a Simmons Aetec Illuminated 2.8-10x (or whatever is close to that power range) and I like it very much. I think they are a very good product for the money. The illumination really helps for nighttime predator hunting.

I haven't done a scientific study comparing every single brand of scope using a refractor or anything, but my scope works very well for its intended purpose.

I have a .270 that I recently put the 3.9-12 on.  Very happy with it.  For the price, VERY impressive. The wide angle lens is sweet, the eye relief is a little touchy upwards to the top powers, but that's common of most scopes, it's just with these, it seems a little more crucial.  

Really though, I bought the illumnated model, I agree, it's very helpful in low light situations.  

Overall, had no problems so far.  I shoot my .270 frequently and it's really worked out great.

Gundraw

Hmmm... now that I think about it, my ATN's eye relief seems fine from powers 3-7x, but at the highest power of 9x, it's really unbearable.  

How's the eye relief on your scope when you're around 9-10x?  I've been looking at your model, and figure maybe I can use it around 9-10x or below.    

Shadow,

Now keep in mind, I do have this scope on a .270, more of a hunting rifle, but I do like to use it for some long range shooting for fun.  (I reload, that's how I can afford that, hehe)  But anyway, the bottom line is I"m on using it it situations where there is shot after shot semi-auto fire.

I looked at the ATN website at the 3-9X55 LN.  It lists an eye relieve of 90mm, which comes to 3.54, my simmons has relief of 3.5.  A little of that you do seem to lose with the illum. reticle I believe.  For SOME reason I have no idea.

Basically, it lists our two scopes about the same for eye relief.  I've never seemed to have a problem with mine, I did have to mount mine a little forward because of the scope objective getting close to the barrel, but still, I've never found it unreasonable.

The eye relief at the higher levels is more or less more "touchy", but not unusable by any means,.  Almost always, well, actually always, the higher the power, the less eye relief you will have.

Now let me get something clear here.  You are having problems with eye relief, not parallax right??  Parallax is when you can see the reticle move on an object, when you are looking directly through the scope and you see rings and a strange blurred picture.  Like you aren't looking "through" the object.  This problem occurs at greater regularity with higher power scopes.  Are you sure this is not your culprit?  It can be very frustrating as you lose the picture very easily with just the slight movement of your head.  Do you have an adjustable objective??  This help combat that.  Maybe playing around with your existing scope could make it work?  Move it forward or backwards to where it is comfortable and clear.

Hope this helps, just write if you need anything else.

Gundraw

Gundraw,

I guess I'm using the wrong terminology here.  What I mean is how fast I can acquire a full sight picture.  Like you said, at higher powers it's a little "touchy."  At lower powers, for my scope it would be 3x-7x, there's more leeway for head movement while still maintaining full sight picture.  

I do a lot of my shooting 200-300 yards, so I use the 9x power.  What little recoil there is on the 5.56mm can sometimes jolt me enough where I can lose full sight picture (where part of the field of vision turns black) for a second before I regain it.  I just assumed that some scopes are better at allowing the user more head movement... what I thought was called "eye relief" but I was mistaken.    

But yeah, I'm still a relatively new shooter and I'm sure a lot of it is really caused by me and not the scope.

Thanks
   

GREAT scope for the money.

I see,

Yes, eye relief is the distance from your eye to the eyepiece, so that you can see the full (total circle) of view.  Parallax is that strange phenonmenon you get when you move your head side to side, like when the target seems to move as you move your head.  As you move left, so does the sight picture.  This is fixed by adjustable objectives as "zero parallax" can be adjusted for almost ANY distance.  ON my simmons, 25 feet (or something like that) to Infinity.

Everyone has to deal with these problems on scopes, it's just the nature of the beast.

What you might be wanting to look for is a larger Exit Pupil.  That's actually the size of the image as it goes "through" the scope.  The larger the exit pupil, the faster you can get on target, maybe that is the issue.

Bottom line, many of these issues can be fixed with practice, learning where to put your eye, and what is comfortable to you.  When you find this out and establish a pattern, things like parallax and eye relief won't be a problem anymore.  Scopes are tricky to learn to shoot at higher powers no matter what scope, what gun, period.  
Hope this helps.

Gundraw

Absolute BEST scope for the money. Stands up to the heaviest abuse.

I've got a buddy who has used one on a 7 Mag for several years, and it stands up to it with no problems. I've been impressed by it.
-Hobbit

Just bought my second one from Wal-Mart on sale for $101  (down from $169).  Second one because I have two guns.