Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Have you ever seen this cool tool. Scope level

I bought one from Brownells at least ten years ago. Using it according to directions will get get you very close, but I've gone back to eyeballing for a trued up reticle.

These work really well. Have had one for years. Got mine at Brownells too.

The Reticle tru & the the other one pictured were not on the market to my knowledge when I ask a bud how many scope level gadgets he had. He replied; all of them I hope. I borrowed them & my cross dominate or learning disabled mind couldn't make sense out of any of them. So I made something. Like MD says, it's dependent on a flat surface on the scope to be parallel with the cross hairs, but if the rifle is meant for serious stuff, I confirm with a plumb line.

Surface ground tool steel, & the post are milled parallel to the base. The torpedo level has been calibrated. The little POS level on the rail is not level, but I know where it reads when the rifle is level so I left in on there. Cluttered pics you'll agree.

How does confirming with a plumb line assure the vertical crosshair bisects the bore?

Why do they need to bisect the bore? In my opinion that is not needed unless one is using a beaver tail forend.
David Tubbs cants his rifle and levels the reticle to his cant

Tubb is shooting at known distances and I'm pretty sure he's got the necessary "double corrections" grooved for his rotated coordinate system.

There are no absolutes with any of this, all I can do level the rail & then use a plumb line to see if the vertical Xhair is perpendicular to the rail. This method also tells me if the Xhair is perpendicular to the top of the knob, or parallel the erector.

For bisecting the vertical to the ceterline of the bore, & for lack of any other knowledge on how to, I would use the windage knob.

I cant my rifle and a i shoot at unknown distances and have zero trouble. The reticke must be truly level not the rifle

If memory serves - the Reticle-tru was developed by Seely Masker, a
gunsmith and bench rest shooter from Dutchess County NY.
He sold it with the proceeds to enable taking care of a disabled
son.

I suppose it's a matter of a small cant leading to small effects.

Consider an admittedly extreme example, the crosshair at a 45 degree cant to the bore. When the reticle is held level then the bore is well out to the side, let's say to the left. For POA and POI to coincide at, say, 100 yards for a baseline zero the bullet must travel left to right. Now dial in the correction for 600 yards. How far right will the bullet land?

Any cant of the reticle relative to the bore puts the bore out to the side when the reticle is held level. The higher the scope is mounted the bigger the effect. But like I said, and what your shooting indicates, small cant -- small effect.

That's pretty much it. If the reticle is consistently level, for all practical hunting purposes (even a pretty long range) it doesn't matter if it's not exactly above the bore.

But I believe Tubb uses a mount that places his scope directly above the bore of his canted rifle.

Which doesn't guarantee anything, because as I stated before the exterior of some scopes and mounts are not perpendicular to the reticle.

Your memory is incorrect. It was developed (and patented) by Jerry Schmidt of Bozeman, Montana around a decade ago.

On the Tubb 2000 the base cants to level with the ru g ke canted. I'm not sure that maked the retjvke center the bore or not. I remember reading where Tubbs said it didn't have to bisect the bored center

I am not totally sure either--but am sure of one thing, most scope-leveling tools are designed for average shooters who are convinced the scope on their deer rifle HAS to be perfectly "square" or they risk missing a buck. And they'll go to extraordinary lengths to convince themselves their scope is perfectly square.

Most of them should worry more about tilting the rifle differently from shot to shot, which can indeed have an effect on accuracy on longer shots. Which is where a small spirit level will actually help.

+1.......

That's also a reason to use something other than a round dot or bullseye when group testing or sighting in.

I never knew how bad I canted until I started using a level on scopes. It keeps me consistent if nothing else.

+1

Absolutely. But also as you and MD have both pointed out, the effects of a slight cant or a slight offset between the reticle and the bore are relatively insignificant out to distances most people are concerned with.

Assuming a rifle/scope setup has a flat surface on the top of the receiver and another on the scope that is square with the erector assembly (my preference is to use the top of a pic rail and the bottom flat surface of the scope tube under the erector assembly or the top of the elevation turret), my preferred method to square the erector with the rifle is to use two sections of a multi-piece cleaning rod, two elastic bands, and a caliper. I slide one rod in a slot in the pic rail, and secure it to the rifle by wrapping an elastic underneath the magazine area, and attach the other rod to the bottom of the scope or the top of the turret using the other elastic. I make sure the rods are centered side-to-side with equal amounts extending out either side. I measure the distance between the ends of the rods on each side and rotate the scope until the two rods are perfectly parallel. I then check to make sure the reticle and erector assembly are square by checking tracking on a collimator to ensure no horizontal shift over the range of vertical erector travel. Finally, for rifles that will be used extensively for engaging targets at long range, I install a bubble level on the scope and align it with a plumb bob. This is mainly used as a training aid to teach the body's muscle memory to hold the rifle level.

For rifle/scope setups that do not have the necessary flat surfaces perpendicular to the axis of vertical erector travel, the Reticle-Tru is my preferred method, although the setup should still be checked for misalignment between the reticle and the erector, as the Reticle-Tru simply squares the reticle with the rifle.