Eye relief, what eye relief? - Nikon Force XR 2X20 EER Handgun Scopes - NikoPlex

Took my Nikon Force XR 2X20 EER scope to a gunsmith today to be mounted on my Ruger Super Blackhawk Hunter. This SA revolver comes with the solid rib machined for specially designed scope rings made by Ruger. The Nikon scope came with a nice set of flip up lens covers fore and aft. However, the rear lens cover had to go as there was so little clearance due to the height of the rings and maybe the diameter of the ocular lens.
When the scope was mounted on the handgun, at normal arms length distance from the eye, there was a great deal of vignetting of the sight picture. That is to say, the picture was small and surrounded by a thick dark ring, like you were looking through a long pipe. A review of the spec table in the owner's instructions shows that the eye relief is 9.7" - 22.4". There are multiple explanations of these numbers. One might be you can see some of the reticle from 9.7 to 22.4 inches but not all of it. The only adjustment other than windage and elevation on this scope is for "focus" to make the reticle sharp when looking through the eyepiece. One of the disappointing parts to date with this scope is when I called Nikon for support on this eye relief issue. The first person answering the phone (note, this was a person that I got after pressing the right numbers to find my way to someone who knew about scopes)knew nothing about scopes. I mean pitifully nothing. When, after being placed on hold twice so this person could read the manual, that I had in my hand, his ignorance on the subject became clear. I asked for someone who might know more and got another person who was more experienced at talking about a product they have never used and know little about. They were, of course, no more help.
During the multiple holds I was placed on, I twisted the "eyepiece adjustment" that the instructions say is for getting a sharp reticle picture and found that this changed the eye relief and when twisted all the way down, I got a decent sight picture through the scope. Of course when I mentioned this to the second Nikon "expert" they had pretty much nothing to say about this. Per the instructions, I looked at a plain wall and a blue sky to see if the reticle was sharp. It appeared OK.
By the way, I own two other Nikon scopes, a one year old Monarch on a .243 and a ProStaff model on my 12ga slug gun. No problems with those. This Nikon EER scope may be going back.....after deer season.