I have done the old target turret two step and spun scopes in the rings 90 degrees to give my fat fingers more room for reaching in the loading port. I have never even considered how this may effect a scope. Since I am going to be hunting with this gun around home and it is a not a cannon by any means I do not want it to let go on me. So, will mounting a scope so its elevation becomes your windage but on the left side of the scope hurt anything? I am thinking not because I it has never caused an issue for me before. But I might have heard an internet rumor here or somewhere else that it is a bad thing.
my old friend bob s. mounts his scopes in the manner you describe--he is a very experienced fur hunter and trapper (read that,
one of the best in the country), and he did this because after he got several yotes down at a stand and the magazine was dry, in the occasional event of needing an extra round, he felt it gave him an "edge" when attempting to hand-feed a round into the chamber with cold, gloved fingers. since he had 3 kids to support, and he made part of his living bringing yotes to bag, he wanted that "edge".
i knew another old guy who was originally schooled as a doctor, but after graduating with his md., he opted to raise fur bearers instead. he used to feed his many fur clad critters ground up horse meat. he would buy sick or very old horses "on the hoof" from ranchers. after paying for them, he would kill them on-site with a winchester model 43 .218 bee using 46 grain hp pills. it had a 4x scope on deck, mounted with the crosshairs at 45 degrees, like an "x". from straight on, he would line up the crosshairs on the horses head so that one wire went along the left ear and downward through the right eye--while the other wire went along the right ear and downward through the left eye--making the intersection of the crosshairs fall exactly where they had to be for the brain--foolproof. one shot was all he needed. he had a pile of skulls about 4 feet high by 10 feet square--all with a neat little hole in the forehead. you can't argue with that success, and it was humane.
each of these guys mounted their scope with a different, "deliberate cant" for a specific reason which they deemed useful for them in their endeavors, and it made for good medicine.
mounting a scope in such a manner wouldn't be for me, but for years i wondered why scope manufacturers didn't place the windage turret on the left side of the tube, in order to keep the loading port clear...but someone must have had a crystal ball--intently peering into it, and down the corridor of time--for they saw that a "knob" on that side was eventually coming down the assembly line...
