Ladies and Gentlemen,

Any tips on how to get a new scope's reticle level? Do I need to buy that $20.00 gizmo Cabelas sells?

Regards,

Terry

[ 01-12-2003, 06:55: Message edited by: T.Carr ]

I use one of those small spirit levels you hang on strings to level the action, then I sight thru the scope at a vertical edge like the corner of a house, and rotate the scope until the vertical cross hair is parallel to the corner of the house. Then I cross check my level bubble. Be sure to check again as you tighten down. It can cause the scope to rotate. Ku-dude

Mount your scope, leave rings fairly loose but tight enough to prevent fore & aft scope movement but allow you to rotate tube in rings.

To align....While the rifle butt is on the floor, the barrel leaning against your hand (15-20 � angle) and you are looking at the crosshair(s) under the barrel into the objective lens, ...rotate the scope until the horizontal crosshair is perpendicular to the barre/stock assy. Tighten rings. Repeat to verify.

Done.

Gun empty...OF COURSE :-)

[ 01-12-2003, 09:16: Message edited by: Sysephus ]

Terry,

Or, set the rifle in a vise or rest and lay a 6" rule across the flat top of the scope base and with the scope ring caps loosened, turn the scope in the rings until the 6" rule and horizontal cross hair are parallel.

Malm

[ 01-12-2003, 21:33: Message edited by: G.Malmborg ]

I use the Segway Reticle Leveler. Easy and fast to use, it takes out the guesswork.

I take out the bolt, hold the rifle at or near arm's length, and tweak the scope until the vertical crosshair appears to point at the bore.

When I shoulder it, it still looks wrong because I tend to cant the rifle a bit.

It still drives me nuts, especially with Weaver mounts that tend to twist the scope over when you tighten them.

The easiest way is to put your gun in a vise and level it with a bubble level. Then put your scope in the rings and hang a string out in front of it from the ceiling with something like a nail or heavy tied to the end to straighten it out. The string is then plumb. Simply turn the scope to ling up verticaly with the string and you are done.

And by the way... I grew up shooting trap and, while I haven't had a chance to do much of it for a while, my Dad does a LOT of trap shooting, so I still keep up on the latest stuff. Also, my chiropractor is BIG into skeet... so again, I keep up on "things shotgun" where target shooting is concerned. Well... one day, when I was messing with one of those damn Reticle Levelers, I suddenly remembered how some of the more "serious" shotgunners have custom butts, or buttplates, on their shotguns... which are "twisted" left or right, so the gun will fit into their shoulder more naturally when they're shooting. I mean, the gun itself -- the part that does the shooting -- would be straight, for sight-alignment purposes... but at the butt of the gun, the buttplate would NOT be straight up and down with the rest of the gun, but twisted left or right as needed by the shooter. Also, as I said, I've seen custom buttstocks that do the same thing -- allow the rest of the shotgun to be "straight" for sighting, but the buttstock is configured, at the rearmost portion which mounts into the shooter's shoulder, in such a way that the gun mounts naturally and repeatably AND CONSISTENTLY. So... while, technically, the way I mount a scope anymore might mean the receiver looks canted one way or another... like I said, the barrel doesn't care, the scope doesn't care, the receiver doesn't care, and so on. When I mount the rifle, QUICKLY, the reticle is "just right" and the gun fits (into my shoulder) without having to twist or adjust my hold in some way.

I've also seen rifles with adjustable buttplates that do the same thing as I described above.

Russ

[ 01-13-2003, 10:55: Message edited by: Russell E. Taylor ]

Like Russell said above,consistency is everything.As the old archer's saying goes "You must make the same mistake EVERY time".

I like to put my rifle on a rack or in a vise,and put a little bubble on some flat surface of the action.I then turn the rifle,until it is square-then I adjust the scope to be square with it.Very simple and easy (for me) and it looks right when I shoulder it.

Brian.

Russ, the problem with your method is that, with a canted scope, when changing the zero for longer range or changing loads, elevation clicks will move your POI sideways and horizontal changes will move POI vertically, one side or the other. For a known distance, it's OK though, as many target shooters will attest.

Seems to me that gravity acts in a vertical direction basically all the time. If one has his scope mounted with a personal built-in cant to the bore the average poi would only be exact at one particular range and velocity. At longer/shorter range or differing velocities the bullet would tend to string off to the left or right of line of sight with all other factors being equal.

Russell -What would you take for your scope Leveler? Plateau Hunter

By the way, I just found this on Mr. Segway's website.

quote:

---

NOTE: The standard Reticle Leveler provides an "artificial horizon"
to which the reticle and scope is aligned. This can be done at an angle, or even upside down! It doesn't matter!

---

The shooting results using his method or mine are no different.

Russ

[ 01-13-2003, 18:58: Message edited by: Russell E. Taylor ]

I do it just about the same way Russ described. I've tried most of the other methods folks put in their posts but more often than not when I shoulder the rifle the reticle isn't right for my eye. I've taken game from as close as 7 yards to as far out as 400 yards with scoped rifles and never had a problem so I'll stick to my "calibrated" eyeballs and leave room in my toolbox for other gadgets.

If the scope is not perpendicular to the bore the point of impact will shift horizontally as distance is varied. That's basic geometry.

Getting the scope perpendicular is the whole reason behind having a level on the sights in the first place.

If you're shooting at the same distance with the same load all the time, canting doesn't matter. But if you vary distance or any other ballistic variable the canted sights will cause horizontal stringing -- perhaps only minimally, but when you're going for groups in the 0.2's and 0.3's MOA miniscule is precisely what you're trying to eliminate with a sight level.

If you don't understand the basis application of geometry to this relationship, a post in here is not going to be able to explain it to you.

I tend to cant the rifle and also have a pretty significant astigmatism which makes alignment of horizontal and vertical lines difficult to perceive. A reticle level eliminates all those problems.

I align the scope by putting the rifle in a vise and using the screws in the butt plate to "plumb" the setup. Standing behind the rifle, I can run this plumb line across the two screws in the butt plate and extend it up and through the intersection of the crosshairs in the scope.

Then I align the vertical cross hair to a second plumb line positioned in front of the rifle.

Just for the record, the rifle is a Rem. 700 PSS with a Springfield Govt. Tactical scope. Caliber .223 AI, and a "retired" sniper rig from the state police -- who went to .308 Win. caliber.

[ 01-13-2003, 19:26: Message edited by: Genghis ]