Originally Posted By: ARCOREY
"Creased his back on the second shot after realizing that the scope was canted from being on the side of the hill on the first."
I had misses like that and always chalked them up to a bad wind call (they look the same), until I bought a scope with a bubble level built into it. I was amazed at how often I was canting.
About 25 years ago, I took a course in VLR shooting, and part of the course was for the students to aim an (empty) rifle at a odd shaped targets that had no legs, or the legs were both deliberately off at an angle.
On the empty rifle, was a curved builders level, kinda like this one...
http://www.huide-level.com/en/productsmore.asp?pic=322
... in a small frame - and it was over the scope, and the back was blocked so the bubble could only be seen from the front.
Well I gotta tells you, we (the students) would swear we were plumb.
On flat ground we could be off up to 6 or 10 degrees on either side.
And on a hill, we'd be off 10 to 18 degrees towards the down hill direction - and when aiming at something that was near a edge, like the top of a ridge on the other side of a valley, we would ALL line up the horizontal cross hair on the top edge of the ridge.
I thought it would be impossible to be that far off...until it was my turn
It was amazing - people will line the cross hairs up with ANY straight line (like a tree trunk, a fence post or a target holder leg, or the edge of a ridge)... even if that straight line is leaning over at a slight angle like 10 or 12 degrees.canted.
Now I have bubble levels on all my long range rifles - I have used the ones that clamp on the scope, but now my favorite is the little B-Square that mounts on a Weaver cross slot, or Picatinny rail.
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