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Long Range Hunting & Shooting
Scope leveling idea
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<blockquote data-quote="Jeffpatton00" data-source="post: 1973780" data-attributes="member: 97649"><p>The problem I have with understanding everyone's comments is that so many of them describe referencing "level" off mechanical features of the rifle or scope, like the rifle's pic rail or the scope's bottom or turret top. It seems to me than none of these are important, so maybe I'm missing something that you all see. However, it strikes me that only 2 reference lines are important in scope leveling: 1) an invisible vertical "dotted line", running from the center of the barrel to the center of the scope. All elevation adjustments will be along this line, but leveling the rifle off the top of the pic rail may be way out of plumb with respect to this line. So, making certain this line is truly plumb sets the rifle's level. I haven't done this but I'd imagine hanging a plumb line off a wall, then looking down the rifle's bore to ensure the plumb line is visually "centered" in the bore as much as possible, then rotate the rifle (in a vise or other fixture) until the reticle's center point is exactly centered on the plumb line (while the bore remains centered on the line), and at this point we've set the rifle's level. 2) The scope's reticle must then be made plumb to the rifle/scope plumb line by carefully rotating the scope, within the rings, until the reticle's vertical axis is perfectly aligned with the distant plumb line. This should be confirmed via a tall target test. </p><p></p><p>I'm hoping to simplify the scope leveling process for my simple mind, rather than make things more complex. Am I making a fundamental error in my thinking above? It all seems to get down to what it means to level the rifle, and I think setting the rifle's level off a mechanical feature like the pic rail means that we have to make a lot of assumptions: the pic rail is square to the barrel rather than slightly higher on one side or the other, or the scope's Mfr made the scope's bottom or turret top square to the elevation's line of action, etc. We should be able to avoid all those assumptions by simply aligning the rifle's "vertical" to this line between the bore's and the scope's centerlines. What do you think?</p><p>Jeff</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Jeffpatton00, post: 1973780, member: 97649"] The problem I have with understanding everyone's comments is that so many of them describe referencing "level" off mechanical features of the rifle or scope, like the rifle's pic rail or the scope's bottom or turret top. It seems to me than none of these are important, so maybe I'm missing something that you all see. However, it strikes me that only 2 reference lines are important in scope leveling: 1) an invisible vertical "dotted line", running from the center of the barrel to the center of the scope. All elevation adjustments will be along this line, but leveling the rifle off the top of the pic rail may be way out of plumb with respect to this line. So, making certain this line is truly plumb sets the rifle's level. I haven't done this but I'd imagine hanging a plumb line off a wall, then looking down the rifle's bore to ensure the plumb line is visually "centered" in the bore as much as possible, then rotate the rifle (in a vise or other fixture) until the reticle's center point is exactly centered on the plumb line (while the bore remains centered on the line), and at this point we've set the rifle's level. 2) The scope's reticle must then be made plumb to the rifle/scope plumb line by carefully rotating the scope, within the rings, until the reticle's vertical axis is perfectly aligned with the distant plumb line. This should be confirmed via a tall target test. I'm hoping to simplify the scope leveling process for my simple mind, rather than make things more complex. Am I making a fundamental error in my thinking above? It all seems to get down to what it means to level the rifle, and I think setting the rifle's level off a mechanical feature like the pic rail means that we have to make a lot of assumptions: the pic rail is square to the barrel rather than slightly higher on one side or the other, or the scope's Mfr made the scope's bottom or turret top square to the elevation's line of action, etc. We should be able to avoid all those assumptions by simply aligning the rifle's "vertical" to this line between the bore's and the scope's centerlines. What do you think? Jeff [/QUOTE]
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