Mounting position

I take the question as asking which side of perfect eye relief is better, slightly closer or longer. Mounting a scope should complement your natural hold position on the rifle. Mounting the scope closer to the eye then necessary gives a couple problems. A quick mounting of the rifle and hitting your eye, possible recoil problems and not knowing proper eye alignment. Having the eye relief slight longer then perfect can give the advantage of showing proper eye alignment with the scope, easier quick mounting, and the scope is not as close to the eye for recoil. Some scopes have short eye relief and others have a built in longer eye relief, and some the eye relief varies on which power setting is used. This may affect mounting position. Selecting a scope to fit your rifle and not to interfere with the operation, and also fit you can take some careful measuring and selecting. It is really nice when you can try someone's outfit that is like yours.