The one thing most miss is learning when enough is enough, If you can quarter the target with your aiming point that is enough power, an sometimes adding more will make your groups open more. Where I shoot most of the time in the winter there is very, very little air moving an after the 3-4 shots the barrel mirage starts. I can still quarter a MOA target at 8x but there are times an depending chambering I have to drop below 8x. The out is use a 2 MOA target at 6X as most of my glass is only 10X max so it now seems like I'm using 12X on a 1 MOA target.
The other thing I have found that helps me is to use a horizontal line only,... for zeroing the up an a vertical line only,... for the windage. Make the lines the same subtension as you ret an your true zero is easier to define. Once you have done that take a blank paper an learn to hold the center of same until it's second nature for you to place the bullet where you what it w/o a defined aiming point.
Another good zeroing drill or scoring drill is to draw a line at 45* across a blank paper an try using your ret an dot that line at every 1MOA using you ret. Score yourself an after awhile the knack of placing the bullet in/on to something,... w/o a defined aiming point will become,... second nature.