Eyepiece threads are usually very fine, requiring many turns (seemingly taking forever) to achieve any visible focus change, and are set with a lockring once the user gets the scope to where he wants it. The result is that most shooters, if they adjust eyepiece focus at all, just do it once and then leave it set in that spot forever.

The advanced eye-relief features of the Monarch UCC 2.5-8X handgun scope contribute to its dual-purpose utility as a scope for scout-style rifles and slug guns.

On midrange riflescopes this doesn't really matter very much, but as high-magnification, high-range variable riflescopes have become more and more popular, scopemakers have increasingly taken to equipping their products with quick-focus, rubber-cushioned rings on the back of the eyepieces to allow maximum precision of reticle clarity against tiny distant targets and also allow quick change for different shooters' vision.

That Nikon added this to the Monarch 2.5-8X UCC handgun scope is wonderful because the shooter can now use the fast-focus eyepiece ring to quickly optimize eye-relief potential at whatever magnification setting he's using, instantly, without needing to loosen the lockring and spend five minutes of trial and error with the threaded eyebell.

Of course, you are also changing the eyepiece focus and reticle clarity when you do this, but on scopes at 8X magnification or below, the differences are virtually unnoticeable when shooting a long eye-relief optic (the eye will automatically compensate for slight focal discrepancies). Besides, if I have to choose between being a hair off on reticle crispness or having sufficient eye relief and field of view to line up on my quarry, well, I know which I choose. I'm amazed that other handgun scopemakers have not followed Nikon's lead on this.

The eye-relief features of the Monarch UCC 2.5-8X also contribute to its utility as a special-purpose riflescope as well, specifically as a scout-rifle scope or a forward-mount slug gun scope. Short, compact "scout" rifles with barrel-mounting optics features like the Ruger Model 77 Frontier model and Marlin's Guide Gun are rapidly increasing in popularity.

Most optics makers' specific models of "Scout Scopes" are fixed-power, low-magnification items in the 2.5X range. That's fine for quick-acquisition, both-eyes-open shooting (which is admittedly the primary justification for the scout rifle design), but a Ruger Model 77 Frontier in .300 WSM is a fine long-range shooter as well, and the 2.5-8X capability of this Monarch UCC gives you precise shot placement at the high end as well as fast-on-target at the low end. And thanks to the Quick Focus Eyepiece, you can get the best from the scope's eye relief capability at any zoom level with tremendous versatility in forward-backward mounting placement for different configurations of guns.

On slug guns, I've always preferred barrel-mounted optics, ever since Remington first introduced the original convertible cantilever barrels for Model 870s and Model 1100s. The Monarch UCC 2.5-8X is presently my preferred whitetail slug optic; it's perfect for stalking into my stand on 2.5X and also for making a precise long shot once I'm there.

Last autumn in Illinois I had the unusual experience of taking a trophy whitetail that trotted by my stand at 20 yards with an S&W .44 Magnum revolver wearing this Nikon scope at 2.5X; the very next week in Iowa I used the same model scope on the 8X setting on a 20-gauge Remington slug gun to put down a 150-inch whitetail at 65 yards. Two different trophies with two totally different types of firearms using the same model scope. Versatile optics, indeed.