What do you use to level the reticle?

[JimmyCP]

Used the wheeler set works nice to get a start. Use the mag lite through the front to verify on a level line drawn on the wall as others have mentioned. Then it's out to the range.
Rifle leveled off the bench or bipod
Shot at 200, 300, 400 no adjustment on turrets.
Rifle back on the bench at the house and level with target level on the wall and verify cross hairs line up with shots on the target.

Good enough for me and they hit on target at 2200 yards. But I'm just an extreme range hunter not a paper hound.

 

[TBell]

A dark room with a plumb bob hung on the wall and a flashlight shining through the scope is the best tools I've ever used.

 

[TBell]

A dark room with a plumb bob hung on the wall and a flashlight shining through the scope is the best tools I've ever used.

yes but you still need to be plumb with bore. You could hold the gun at a 45 degree angle and still plumb the reticle with a plumbob

 

[Plowboy85]

Alright guys see if y'all can help with this. I used a small flashlight taped to the bore, a 3/16" nylon braid as a plumb bob and a light in the objective to get it to all shine. One thing I noticed is there was a little refraction if you moved the light left to right in the objective you could make the reticle float around on the wall (it only done it left to right, would not up or down). I tried my best to keep it centered by eyeballing it with the barrel. So I got the bore aligned to the plumb bob and the reticle aligned to the plumb bob as well, at 20' it was about 1/8"-1/4" off the plumb bob but very true to parallel. Here is the monkey wrench, when I got done I wanted to see how true the gun felt and how the wheeler action level tool looked, the gun felt canted and the wheeler level was all the way to the side (completely out of the level lines). When I leveled it out with the wheeler it was off the plumb bob about +1.5" up top & -1.5" at the bottom. Incase its asked the action is a Defiance Deviant and the scope is a Nightforce. The turrets were just about perfectly leveled to the reticle as well, I know some folks question that philosophy so thought I'd pass it on.

 

[RiverSink]

yes but you still need to be plumb with bore. You could hold the gun at a 45 degree angle and still plumb the reticle with a plumbob

Like I've already said, I have a rail mounted level to plumb the rifle, I then plumb the scope with the plumb bob and flashlight while maintaining a plumb rifle. I have intentionally set up some rifles with a slight can't for comfort before too. The scope was set up dead level though and just like any other, as long as my bubble was centered I never had any problems with tracking out past 1k.

 

[lyle2231]

I have bought many different tools and still had a slanted reticle on a couple of scopes.
I have the Level Level tool from Wheeler,the Professional level system also from Wheeler I believe and have used the plum bob system and still have a couple slightly slanted reticles.
I just bought a new tool that fixed all my slightly off reticles and was only 19.95.
So far I have fixed all my slightly off reticles and a couple of friends with the same problem.
Has anyone used this before?
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07MC71PC4/?tag=lrhmag19-20
I hope all scopes I mount will be as easy as my new mounted Athlon Ares BTR 2.5-15x50.
Let me know if there are better tools out there.
Old Rooster

I mount the rings/scope and leave the top of the rings loose. Then lay down prone and have a buddy move the scope. That way I can get the reticle where I want want it also get the eye relief set up. HTH!

 

[LDHunter]

It appears that quite a few posters don't seem to understand that making the vertical crosshair line up with the center of the bore is the critical part. Trusting the scope base or any other part of the action to be perfectly square is leaving a LOT to chance. I suspect that people that manufacture actions don't consider that to be a critical part of a perfect action.

That is why the plumb bob is the only perfect way that I've read here or ever heard of to ensure that you have it perfectly aligned. The flashlight method seems to be flawed and for that matter so does the plumb bob method if you don't have the parallax set right and in many cases you aren't going to be able to do that at 20 feet or maybe even 25 yards. In those cases I just go to 100 yards.

Remember the poster that said being even 1 degree off will cause a 5" horizontal windage error at 1,000 yards? If that is correct then trusting anything mechanical that relies on a square action is not going to be something I'd trust. This is a long range hunting forum and for most of use long range begins far enough out that that one degree can make a big difference.

 

[TBell]

I usually mount the scope with a level on the top turret and one on the action rails. Then I take a tall target to the range and hang a plumb bob with a bright colored string next to it to check. Shoot the adjustment range of your scope up and down the target to check tracking, with an eye to click value and staying on the line. Lots of more experienced shooters here than me, with excellent ideas. Not quite so important for horizontal crosshair to be level as vertical to be straight I think. They should correspond though, but we check because we understand things aren't always as they should be.

Good idea, I like that one

 

[TBell]

It appears that quite a few posters don't seem to understand that making the vertical crosshair line up with the center of the bore is the critical part. Trusting the scope base or any other part of the action to be perfectly square is leaving a LOT to chance. I suspect that people that manufacture actions don't consider that to be a critical part of a perfect action.

That is why the plumb bob is the only perfect way that I've read here or ever heard of to ensure that you have it perfectly aligned. The flashlight method seems to be flawed and for that matter so does the plumb bob method if you don't have the parallax set right and in many cases you aren't going to be able to do that at 20 feet or maybe even 25 yards. In those cases I just go to 100 yards.

Remember the poster that said being even 1 degree off will cause a 5" horizontal windage error at 1,000 yards? If that is correct then trusting anything mechanical that relies on a square action is not going to be something I'd trust. This is a long range hunting forum and for most of use long range begins far enough out that that one degree can make a big difference.

That was my point

 

[wvelk huntr]

I see the tool but not how it works.
Shep

I have one and like it, but I would consider it a first step and should be confirmed using a tall target.

 

[Barrelnut]

I have one and like it, but I would consider it a first step and should be confirmed using a tall target.

I put a rubber band around the brass screw and barrel. It holds the tool against the scope bell and barrel so it doesn't move on you when turning the scope align the reticle. Or you can just lock the rifle down after you get the scope over the bore. Don't even need the tool after that...

 

[Hal The Slayer]

A dark room with a plumb bob hung on the wall and a flashlight shining through the scope is the best tools I've ever used.

That's what I'm talking about RiverSink,That's Old School!

 

[Tommo64]

A dark room with a plumb bob hung on the wall and a flashlight shining through the scope is the best tools I've ever used.

Plus 1 on this. Simple, effective and cheap.

 

[Tommo64]

I've never done it either
Can somebody explain how please

Make sure your action is level first.