I learned to favor a longer eye relief with my heavy hitting calibers even at the expense of a slightly less than ideal sight picture. I too got popped in the eye but only because I was wearing my prescription eye glasses, AND my "over the glasses" type sunglasses. I've seen a few new bench shooters at our 600 yd range get too far up on the scope in the prone position and get a 3rd eyebrow from an -06 or a bigger magnum's recoil.