Shopping for rifles with no scopes mounted yet...

[Purebred Redneck]

Looking to get your opinion on this

I've been at the store looking at a Kimber rifle. As most rifles now, there's no sights and this is not sold as a combo gun with scope. When looking at short actions with 22" barrels, it feels alright sighting down the barrel trying to imagine where the scope is going to be. However, when looking at the long actions with 24" barrels it feels like I am sighting much lower and it feels like would be very awkward.

The drop at the heel and comb are advertised to be the same measurements on both the short and long actions. The LOP is only .12" different, kind of a rounding error...

Do you think looking at 2" of extra barrel on an unscoped rifle messes with your perception? In other words it would probably be just fine when the scope is on? There doesn't appear to be any differences in the stocks unless the specs are inaccurate.

[Jack]

That's kind of a puzzler. Assuming the stock dimensions are the same. . .
Seems to me that 2" of barrel isn't going to be that noticeable. I suppose the balance would feel different between a long action and a short action - maybe.

[dovehunter]

Maybe it's just out of ignorance, but in the past I have never worried about the length of the action or barrel when mounting a scope. I've never had any problem in mounting a scope or getting it sighted in, even using high rings. I would not worry about it. I would just pick the scope and mounts you want, mount them, and then sight it in. I can't imagine you'd have any problems.