Studying this has piqued my interest in leveling for some reason, so I decided to take a look at the rifle that I was using when I made the longest shot I have ever made. The rifle is a Remington titanium I bought a number of years ago but have not used much. It is as wonderful little rifle which weighs 5lbs, 3oz. without the scope and empty. I have never weighed it scoped and loaded. I bought it in 30-06, but I cannot leave anything alone, so I had it rechambered for 30 Gibbs. But it's 6 pounds is a considerable difference from the 11lbs of Sendero, scope and cartridges I usually pack around, I'm not "Old Teacher" for nothin'. Anyway. I leveled the rifle up the best I could using a number of devices, and I got it looking pretty flat. I peered through the scope, and it was canted to the left about four degrees. When shouldered, the scope appeared to be level. The last deer I shot with this rifle was a doe when my two partners and I went as a group, so we all had tags, We hunt the breaks of the Snake in the lower, east corner of WA. We got in good with some wheat farmers there, and for $10 a -piece, we can hunt for as long as we want on 7500 acres behind a locked gate. We get a key. Ordinarily, punching three doe tickets takes about an hour, but for some reason, we just could not locate them in their usual spots. We could shoot either species. We were down to about a half hour from the season ending, my partners were finished, and I was embarrassed. I was standing on a hill in long grass, and a whitetail doe walked out a long way below me. This was going to be my last chance, but she was so far away, it was not an ethical shot, but I decided to try it anyway. I had one of the first generation range finders limited to 400 yards. I took a look through it, and it was obvious the doe was more than double the range finder's limits. I pondered my load, my rifle, m y scope (a Zeiss), the distance, the ethical issues, and my own limited abilities. I estimated the bullet drop at four feet. I decide to take one shot. I held three and a half (I guess) feet above her back right above her boilerhouse and touched off the shot. She stumbled a little, reared up on her hind feet, and fell over backward, stone dead. I took a reading on a rock 400 yards toward her, walked to it, took another reading 400 yards away, walked to it, then took a final reading to the deer, another 37 yards.
An 837 yard shot out of a 30 Gibbs. Absolute blind freaking luck, plain and simple. I couldn't do that again in a hundred tries. The bullet had gone through the middle of her heart. The point here has nothing to do with my shooting abilities, which are average at best, especially as I get older, and we have all made a shot like that that we like to talk about. The point is that a bullet from a rifle with a scope canted about 3-4 degrees went in a straight (Vertical) line directly to the target.
No wind involved. So the question is, is there necessarily a direct relationship between everything being level and the way the gun shoots. Out of a perfect rifle, probably, but I have not seen the perfect rifle yet, and I have been looking for 60 years. Does all of this mean anything relevant to the argument...I don't know.
