Plumb Reticle but Always Looks Canted to Left

[General RE LEE]

My reticle is plumb but it always looks canted to the left. Anyone else deal with this? Annoying as heck.

 

[hereinaz]

your head is tilted so your ear says it’s out of level

Annoying, yes.

 

[BadEarth]

Yup! I never used a level and set the scope to look straight to me. Then started leveling and everything looked canted. Been getting used to it over the years tho and starting to feel more and more normal

 

[Aeast]

Phew, thought I was the only one, guess I'm not crazy after all.

 

[Walmart Greeter]

Sounds like you lean a little left. Did you vote for Biden?

 

[General RE LEE]

Sounds like you lean a little left. Did you vote for Biden?

You think a guy with the handle “General RE Lee” would vote Democrat?

I wouldn’t piss on them if they were on fire.

 

[General RE LEE]

It’s an illusion

I reconfirmed everything is plumb and set up like I was going to shoot left handed and used my left eye in the scope. The reticle appeared canted to the right!

Plumb just looks canted to the left in my brain.

 

[sndmn11]

Maybe your rings are the wrong height for your face.

 

[cuttingedge]

Could be your vision. I have astigmatism. I was shooting a new bow at the range one day and the top cam looked to be leaning so bad I was afraid of a derail. I went home, got my son to look at it standing behind me and to take a picture. He said, "Dad, it's not leaning". I looked at the pic and he was correct.

So, I set everything with the level and roll with it. Scopes, bow sights, kinda like trusting a compass. If I use the level, I know it's right no matter what my eyes tell me.

 

[Shortschaf]

It's cuz you only got one shoe on

 

[packer58]

Same thing happens to me also, not much but just enough to be noticeable. I found it to be my canting of the rifle slightly left. Get yourself a small level of some sorts to check how your shouldering the rifle, might just surprise you.

 

[hereinaz]

Same thing happens to me also, not much but just enough to be noticeable. I found it to be my canting of the rifle slightly left. Get yourself a small level of some sorts to check how your shouldering the rifle, might just surprise you.

I haven’t done it with this rifle, yet, but prior rifles I shouldered the rifle with a little natural cant, and then leveled my scope.

So, when I threw up my rifle to its “natural position” the rifle can be canted but the scope level. That doesn’t affect precision at typical long range hunting ranges.

 

[Grassymike]

Carpenter here. Stabila makes an excellent little pocket level that is about 3'' long and magnetic. Somewhere around $25-30. Works excellent for scope mounting .

 

[packer58]

I haven’t done it with this rifle, yet, but prior rifles I shouldered the rifle with a little natural cant, and then leveled my scope.

So, when I threw up my rifle to its “natural position” the rifle can be canted but the scope level. That doesn’t affect precision at typical long range hunting ranges.

Agreed .....

 

[General RE LEE]

Problem solved

It’s because I’m coming in from the side. When I set up on a table and come straight to the gun, it’s level.

 

[JohnJohnson]

Maybe your rings are the wrong height for your face.

OP, I'd explore this line of thinking. If you're having to crank your head/neck unnaturally to look through the scope that's not very fun. If that happens to be the case try higher rings.

And if someone says it'll exaggerate scope cant, point them here.

fact or fiction: higher scope height increases cant error (and how much)

I am sure this has been discussed, but seems to have some myth surrounding it, so figured I'd start a new thread to ask specifically. I can find a number of articles on the topic of cant, but few that quantify the error including scope height as a variable. rifle cant causes error at long...

rokslide.com

 

[packer58]

Problem solved

It’s because I’m coming in from the side. When I set up on a table and come straight to the gun, it’s level.

Good job, now all's you gotta do if figure out how to carry a table around while your hunting to keep things level ........... sorry man, i'm just having a little fun here .....

 

[General RE LEE]

Pics

 

[QuackAttack]

If you truly want to check, hang a plumb line at 100m and get behind the optic. Scope leveling is a bit controversial. I tend to favor it being perfectly square to the bore on the vert axis. However, a lot of excellent shooters like David Tubb do it totally opposite and their rifle is a bit canted while the scope is level to the horizon. If you know and validate your holds, it all works.

 

[V2Pnutrition]

I don’t know if this will be helpful to you or not, but it was to me…especially if you run a picc rail.

From LRHF on leveling the scope w/ regard to the action/gun itself (vs just using a plumb).

Leveling Your Scope