Another dumb Question
 

On some random pictures, I've noticed that people taking rifle shots, get black eyed from the gun recoiling the scope into their eye from being too close, or so it seems.

My question is; aren't you supposed to have your eye very close to the scope, in order to see your target??

What are they doing wrong?

In case you haven't noticed, I'm not much of a gun guy. Be gentle.

Scopes have different focal points designed for each type of rifle they are supposed to be mounted on. Scopes for .22 rim fire rifles do require you to put your eye right up near the eye piece to focus right, because those gun have no recoil. Those scope can be cheaper, even having similar power to hi-powered rifle scopes, but they carry warnings not to use them on anything but .22s. High-powered rifle scopes focus at a point that should keep your eye safely away from the eyepiece, even considering the expected recoil. On those scopes you can only see an image if your eye is several inches from the eyepiece.

It can be frustrating for new scope users to get the full view from a scope. It's not like looking through a window pane at what is beyond. Try looking through binoculars with your eyes 4" away from the eyepiece.

Eye relief. The distance your eye is from the scope for a perfect view. Handgun scopes have lots of eye relief. An arms lengths worth.

Rifles scopes have less. Several inches. I’m not bringing up scout rifle scopes to not muddy the water. You put your eye up hard to a rifle scope you can’t see a full picture. You need to be back a few inches.

Binoculars have very short eye relief.

I’ve “scoped” myself when I was younger. Shooting prone which can put your eye abnormally close to the scope.

Right on Vash, plus I'd guess the rifle butt isn't up against their shoulder firmly enough

We call it "stock crawling", where a shooter inches his face too far forward on the comb of the stock to "see better". As others have noted, that's not how rifle scopes work. They are designed so that the full field of view is achieved with the eye several inches back from the ocular lens. Quite unlike binoculars, telescopes, and cameras, so they kind of confuse some people. Most people only do it once, though...

A friend of mine did it twice with a 7mm Rem. Mag. Broke his nose the second time.

Another friend did it with a 12g turkey hunting. He was following the bird to the weak side with the shotgun and not his body. Don't ask me why he had a scope for turkey.

I also think it's from not having the stock hard against the shoulder when firing.