Leveling a scope is dumb

C

chillywig

Private
Full Member
Minuteman
Aug 3, 2014
171
166
Charleston WV
#1
Or maybe its me

OK
RimX action
Spuhr mount with level (lol)
Razor 6x36 G3
MDT send it
Light in objective
Plumb line and shadow on wall

I leveled Spuhr mount with its bubble. Then flashlight in objective to plumb line shadow on wall. Nothing else levels out.
Put level on scope, mount, or gun everything is canted. I am going with plumb line and gravity.

I do some fine tuning trying to get scope, mount or gun level with bubble and MDT send it stays solid green saying its good (😊) the whole time even as plumb line shadow shows me how crooked the scope is.

Screenshot_20250406_215904_Gallery.jpg
 
#6
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#7
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#8
ma smith said:
reticle to level to gravity = rifle is level.

the only caveat is if your reticle isn't square to your erector.

then you're screwed...:ROFLMAO:
Click to expand...
I've seen a few scopes where the reticle wasn't plumb and square with the turret knobs or any other flat reference surface on the scope body. In each instance, I ran tall target test which verified the erector and crosshairs were plump and square to each other. The erector was not square to the scope body.

In instances like that, you just adjust your scope level to be true to your crosshair plumb/level. Forget about referencing anything to the scope body or turret caps.
 
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#26
Using quality riflescopes and bases, the feeler gauge method has never failed me. You can be Zero'd and shooting before the leveling dude is done leveling with a small amount of practice. You are then as level from the bore axis with respect to the turrets as your base is. Note: This is for one piece bases on a bolt gun. Carry on on an AR mount or 2 peice bases.
 
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#27
Matches Malone said:
Because the scope cap isn’t 90 degrees to the reticle, and because we spend a lot of time and money trying to be accurate out to far distances.
Click to expand...
I shoot 1000 yards regularly with a 6.5 man bun
Have also shot 1 mile and successfully hit targets

How far out do I have to shoot before I realize my reticle isn't level?

I have setup my scopes with the wheeler system
 
#28
kenny1773 said:
I shoot 1000 yards regularly with a 6.5 man bun
Have also shot 1 mile and successfully hit targets

How far out do I have to shoot before I realize my reticle isn't level?

I have setup my scopes with the wheeler system
Click to expand...
Well that explains it ; the ManBun is known to shoot straight with the power of a .300 wing mag and the recoil of a .22. Why you 6.5 MB guys can practically will your shots to subMOA . Level smevel you have the magic sauce 😆
 
#29
A degree of rifle cant is around a foot at 1000 yards by my memory. If you level the reticle and not the turrets dialing gives you about the equivalent if my memory is correct. If you level the turrets then the "zero at range" is still good when dialing. If you level the reticle then you should plan on using holdovers or accounting for the cant.
 
#33
ma smith said:
reticle to level to gravity = rifle is level.

the only caveat is if your reticle isn't square to your erector.

then you're screwed...:ROFLMAO:
Click to expand...
Not quite. If the reticle is level to gravity, all that is assured is that the reticle is level to gravity. The reticle could be mounted wonky in the scope (not true to the erector). The scope could be mounted off level from the rifle (many people naturally shoulder their rifles off-level.)

Better to mount the scope off level to the rifle (but true to gravity when shouldered), than true to the rifle but off level when shouldered. And, it has been shown by Lowlight several times that- when the chips are down- many (most?) shooters fail to use their levels and shoot a poorly fitted rifle canted to their natural hold, and fail to correct with their levels…
 
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#35
Woodlanddude said:
A degree of rifle cant is around a foot at 1000 yards by my memory. If you level the reticle and not the turrets dialing gives you about the equivalent if my memory is correct. If you level the turrets then the "zero at range" is still good when dialing. If you level the reticle then you should plan on using holdovers or accounting for the cant.
Click to expand...
If your erector isn't square to your reticle, send your scope back.
 
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#38
Woodlanddude said:
A degree of rifle cant is around a foot at 1000 yards by my memory. If you level the reticle and not the turrets dialing gives you about the equivalent if my memory is correct. If you level the turrets then the "zero at range" is still good when dialing. If you level the reticle then you should plan on using holdovers or accounting for the cant.
Click to expand...

If the reticle and the turret don't align then the scope needs rebuilt and corrected.

The mistake is thinking the outside of the turret is perfectly aligned with the actual erector mechanism and the scope body.

This is why all the levels are nonsense.

Plumb line, dial through range. As long as the reticle follows the line you should be perfect. Shoot a tall target to verify.

An overwhelming amount of scopes that "don't track" are perfectly fine, they're just not perfectly square to the body. Which in reality doesn't matter a bit if the reticle and turrets track together.

It didn't help that most levels are trash. Somewhere here there's a picture floating around of 4 of those Wheeler levels all reading different on the same rail.
 
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#39
hlee said:
Not quite. If the reticle is level to gravity, all that is assured is that the reticle is level to gravity. The reticle could be mounted wonky in the scope (not true to the erector). The scope could be mounted off level from the rifle (many people naturally shoulder their rifles off-level.)

Better to mount the scope off level to the rifle (but true to gravity when shouldered), than true to the rifle but off level when shouldered. And, it has been shown by Lowlight several times that- when the chips are down- many (most?) shooters fail to use their levels and shoot a poorly fitted rifle canted to their natural hold, and fail to correct with their levels…
Click to expand...

This is huge. I spend more time getting the chassis to feel comfortable while level than worrying about the scope. This means I naturally hold the rifle level without needing to think.

I noticed I never looked at my level on the clock so I took it off. Scores didn't change. Just 1 less distraction.
 
#41
kenny1773 said:
I shoot 1000 yards regularly with a 6.5 man bun
Have also shot 1 mile and successfully hit targets

How far out do I have to shoot before I realize my reticle isn't level?

I have setup my scopes with the wheeler system
Click to expand...
Mmmkay. But this being the internet and all, that validates jack shit.

are you a place holder in PRS? Are you in Ko2m? Something? No? I have to assume you lob rounds at a target, giggle about it and go home. That doesn’t not set the accuracy standard.

And it doesn’t change the fact that the scope cap is not always square with the reticle when giving general advice.
 
#44
hlee said:
Better to mount the scope off level to the rifle (but true to gravity when shouldered), than true to the rifle but off level when shouldered. And, it has been shown by Lowlight several times that- when the chips are down- many (most?) shooters fail to use their levels and shoot a poorly fitted rifle canted to their natural hold, and fail to correct with their levels…
Click to expand...
^^^^

This is what I do. It has never failed. People do forget that the way the rifle is shouldered has to be taken into account.
 
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#45
So, all these people talking about how the want the scope level “when shouldering” a frakin’ 23 lbs (or more) rifle.

I’m not talking about your 10 lbs hunting rig SS I know some of the folks advocating this shoot heavy PRS type rifles.

Are you by really shooting off hand (which also means across the body$ with those rifles because if not I wonder why you are worried about cant from your shoulder pocket.

If I shot off hand a lot, I’d put an adjustable butt pad on it and kick the pad’s toe out so rifle and scope are level

I believe NRA high power guys do that.
 
#48
I put it in the bear pit because I was bitching.

In the olden days I would slap a scope on a rifle and eyeball it.
Then graduated to the wheeler level level level
Now I have fancy gizmos like the send it level and bubbles in rings and still struggling

I had not tried the plumb line flash light in objective shadow on a wall before. In the pic you see the plumb line and cross hair shadow on top of one and other. It took a while and several beers yesterday but I think I finally whipped leveling a scope.
 
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