I have a Leupold 2.5 - 8 Vari X 3 scope (duplex reticle). Lately I've noticed the vertical cross hair (in the upper half of the scope) has a bit of a lean compared to the rest of the scope hairs. This is something I haven't really noticed before. The scope is mounted in Leupold one piece mounts and rings on a 30/06 Rem 700 mtn rifle. The scope is more than 15 years old.

What causes this? Is this an age of scope thing that happens? Could initial over torquing the rings have eventually lead to this? If I back the torque off a bit on the rings could it return back to normal or should I just leave it alone?

I realize I could send it back to Leupold but is there something I can do to rectify it?

Got any photos?

Any chance you wear glasses with astigmatism correction in the lenses? I had the same issue with a similar Leupold scope AFTER I got new glasses with progressive lenses and astigmatism correction. The vertical cross hair looked tilted and I thought the scope was screwed up, but it was my glasses. A slight shift in head position looking through a different section of the lens of my glasses solved the problem. Now I'm using a Firedot reticle, so no problems now.

I'll check that out. I do wear glasses and I think I have some astigmatism.

Leupold...

This. I had those issues when I wore glasses.

Very interesting - I've just got done looking through 2 scopes - both Leupolds.

When I viewed the reticle with my glasses, the top vertical hair tilted slightly. I then viewed it with glasses off and the reticle straightened out. I assume as you said that my glasses are indeed correcting my astigmatism and causing the cross hair to look slightly off kilter.

Thank you very much for solving an optical perception issue that was driving me nuts.

I had that problem after a cataract operation in my shooting eye. It actually was pretty bad. My eye doctor said it would resolve itself and it did after about 3 weeks. I actually had to readjust the focus on my scopes a bit too, but that was likely due to the new lens and the fact I could see again.

Always been a problem for me as well...