Canting
Since I started shooting at 150 and 260 yards I have seen first hand how critical having a level rifle and reticle are.
I bought a couple of Harbor Freight cheapo plastic levels to harvest the bubble vials from. I took one of vials and super glued it to the flat reciever behind the rear scope ring. Another I JB’ed to the scope cap on the Leupold VXIII and coordinated the two.
Problem is, I seldom heve the scope cap on, so I rely primaily on the level on the rifle, and it turned out I was off about a half inch from being level at 36 yards on a 3 foot level.
At long range I noticed that I have a tendency to shoot to the right. And it took a week or so until I had a perfectly calm day to confirm my suspicions.
It is very difficult to clamp the rings down after rotating the scope to square and level, without rotating it to the side you first tighten when you tighten the ring caps.
So today, having a windless morning, I decided to see if I could get it closer. I set up a 3 foot level on end at 36 yards, then spent about an hour with my rilfe on bags, leveling the FX Royale, turning the scope, checking the entire unit agaist the level and doing it again. Finalally I had it square to the two levels and I slowly tightened the cap screws evenly, checking the levels as I tightened.
Then I resighted in the rifle at 36 yards, then maxed out my elevation for my 260 yard zero, which right now is 76 Minutes with a 36 yard zero and a hold of 12 MOA on the Holland reticle, the scope has 106 minutes total adjustment, and shot it at 260 yards with a zero wind.
My shots at 260 yards were a direct drop from the center of the level reticle.
I repainted my target and emptied the paint can. I placed the paint can at the top of the 8 foot post and went to the 150 yard line, dialed in 33 minutes of elevation, and gently caressed the trigger while holding on the paint can.
In the scope I watched that can turn end for end and then heard the thwack as it hit.
I am getting confidence that I can take a crow sized bird at 150 yards now. My groups are in the 3 inch range at 150 yards and I know exactly how far to correct.
I do need some target turrents on the Leupold, I will send it off in about a month and get the turrents put on.
Regards,
Roachcreek
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RC,
Long range shooting sure does expose every flaw doesn’t it? Cant is absolutely critical to precision and the trajectories we shoot exacerbate the problem.
I don’t have a level on my Yukon as I’m using a zero power holo site (don’t laugh it’s effective to 200 yards) and I’m not capable of cloverleafs at that range with my old tired eyes and mediocre skills level anyway… Besides, .62 one shot groups are good enough with that gun on most kill zones.
Now, my Prairie 3 has a 10-50x scope on it and has had a level on it from day one. That gun is for bench use only and tiny little groups are expected. Even I can see through that scope and the level really helps me keep from blowing a shot.
I decided on a two scope solution for my Woodsman as I happened to have a really good scope in inventory for long range work but the gun is really a hunter. Despite being designed as a hunter, the gun is just so darn accurate with the .32 insert that it demands some long range target work. As soon as my back-ordered droop mounts come in, I’ll mount the Nightforce scope and it will have a level on it from the first shot.
My procedure for scope mounting has long been to start by useing a proper shop level to draw a perfect level line on my target wall and also a perfect verticle line so I end up with a giant crosshair downrange. Then I fiddle with the gun and get it perfectly level on the bench (that’s usually the hardest part). Then, I carefully adjust the scope so the crosshairs pefectly align with the level cross on the target wall (about 40 yards away). After double checking all that about a dozen time… I make sure my level on the gun (scope or rail mounted) is reading a proper level with everything lined up. If a rail mounted level isn’t adjustable and doesn’t show dead center with everything else level, I either mark the level properly or just remember where the bubble rides when actually level.