Parker Hale eyepiece question

[Rumpelhardt]

I was just wondering which Parker hale adjustable eyepiece was prefered the 6 hole or the adjustable iris? It would seem to me that the 6 hole would be more durable but I would like to hear from those who actuly use them.

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[villiers]

I´ve got the eyepiece with the screw-on receptacle for an optical lens. A friendly optician made me a very small lens to fit and I tried it out. Found that it was just about useless, so now use the six hole aperture.

[Rumpelhardt]

Thanks. I know about useless eye pieces lol I have a single hole one and in any thing other than bright light it is very hard to use.

[Fred G.]

I have both but haven't been able to do any shooting with either yet. The iris eye piece also has a set of colored lenses that can be dialed into place. The eye piece that has the six different sized apertures that click into position has an aperture cap that can be removed and individual colored lenses place within. These individual lenses I've been unable to find anywhere. I imagine that it's all a matter of personal preference as to which is the best. The iris was mentioned as having the ability of being adjusted more smoothly, giving the shooter the option of more variable sized openings like the human eye has.

[Fred G.]

Here is a picture that I just took today. I have trouble finding the front sight within the eye piece through the cell phone camera. Just too tiny to see anything until I download the photo's to my email. Fred

[RJW NZ]

I tried them all until I finally bought an iris, after that, t I pitched the lot and only have irises now. The correct way to use an eyepiece is to start with the brightest image that gives the best focus, then choose a size hole less than that where the light level appears to suddenly drop off, then go up one step and thats the right size to use, one size up from the darkened view. Naturally this changes all the time due to the external light situation while you shoot, ie sunshine and passing clouds etc. If you have eyepieces with holes that becomes a lot of fiddling, and almost impossible to change while on a timed shoot. The iris is perfect, you open it up to the best image, close until it darkens, open it a tad and you;re done. It takes about as long as it does to read this. Now imagine putting down the rifle, picking up and screwing in a handful of eyepieces and doing it over and over as the light changes. irises rule.
The ones I've had have all been durable, but they can gum up with dried oil and grease, that inhibits the smooth operation as well as stopping full open pr full closed. This is easily fixed with soaking in thinners such as WD 40 or turps overnight and then using light oils that won't dry out, and then soaking it occasionally.
One BIG don't with irises, they can be very carefully opened up for cleaning but avoid it if you can, the leaves are very delicate and break easily. A fatal mistake is to remove the leafs from their individual pivot points, they are made in situ, if thats the right phrase, and any dismantling will undo little folds that can never be put back.

I love them.
The best that I like also have the filter wheel built in, same thing as eyepieces, making changes while you shoot takes a second, any other way will ruin a nice day.
Take a look at enfieldresource.com for images of all of this stuff.

[Rumpelhardt]

Thanks a lot for the replies. I have a 6 hole one coming but it sounds like the iris type might be a bit better. I don't shoot in competitions but the ease of use seems to favor the iris type so I think I will put the 6 hole one on my .22 and get an iris type for my Enfield.

[Mk VII]

I find that a great many of the six-hole ones are too small to be usable, even on the largest hole, and I usually ream them out to the larger sizes. This requires taking the eyepiece to bits, and not losing any of the pieces.