How Bad

Of a NoNo. Still unpacking and I can’t find my plumb bob or even anything to make one.

Go downtown to the RR tracks and grab up a rock and
a piece of twine and cobble one together.
Not heading that way or I'd bring one you could borry

You shooting 500 and in - you look level and good to go

Level the reticle, not the turret.

Yeah I know, just nothing to level it against at the moment.


actually, I did unpack my levels last night, I can sit one on the back fence and shim it until it’s level.

Point the gun at a wall, (muzzle pretty close), and shine a flashlight through the scope, put level on the reticle.

Or drive a nail in the fence, and hang the level or some kind of plum bob.

I use a chalk line box most anyway.

In theory you could use a big level edge as your line

Your iPhone has a level in the compass mode. IDK how accurate it is.

Door frame, or the door if it's level and plum.

I’ve lifted a blind up off the window sill and used the strings in them Desperate times call for desperate measures.

I broke down and bought the wheeler scope level it…now I do them in a vice.

This thing is foolproof, quick, easy.

https://parabola-llc.com/

Vertical blinds are good also.

I use adjustable parallels to set the scope level.. one could also do the same thing with feeler gauges.
I’ve proved both methods using the box tests etc, to insure they were straight up. This method only works with scopes built off the flats of the turret bodies like mark 4’s and nightforce’s and maybe the higher end vortex scopes

Buy one of these, they do what a $3000 level use to cost.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0793LFSP4/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o07_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1Huepar laser level on Amazon

I used a bunch of methods over time. Here is the latest. Won’t work in every situation but most times.

https://store.fixitsticks.com/products/scope-jack

Huh, you're supposed to level your scope ???

learn something new everyday

Chalk line box works really well.

I hung it in front of the white door

Never seen that before, pretty cool.

I like this idea, going to get one. Like JG said, you need to level the reticle not the turret.

I wasn’t going to address this but as a group few of you read the damn post and just looked at the picture. I know to level the reticle, I was just not in a position to do so at the time.

So you were wanting confirmation your half azzed efforts were alright to do. And you didn't get that confirmation, because it isn't the right way to go about the process. Don't get pissed at us for you half azzing something. Do it right, or don't do it at all.

That almost a fair summary. I knew it was wrong, I just didn’t know how far off it potentially would be, so I ask. So half the people didn’t read the post and assumed I was a dumbass, then told me how to do it correctly. Which was pretty evident I already knew how. Although I did learn some new methods from the more constructive responses.

At no point was I looking for confirmation that it was ok, just how bad.

Bubble levels are a method of last resort anyway, anywhere IMO.

Short answer, pretty bad.

Had to re-level quite a few scopes that people placed a level on top of the turret.

That’s what I was afraid of, the good news is I’ll have time to do it right Thursday.

All of my current ones have been leveled using one of the I-beam supports of my carport.

My biggest problem with all of this is, yeah, you can level the reticle, but how do you know it's 90 degrees/perfectly perpendicular to the bore? I've leveled one and then shouldered the rifle and found that I cant the rifle just a touch, usually. Or do i? Was the rifle 100% up-down in the vise? Was it off just a hair? I'm never 100% sure when I'm done.

I install a pic rail level.

If no pic rail, I place a small spirit level on the base.

Keep the rifle level, rotate the scope to get the reticle level with it.

Also if you use a plumb of some sort you can pull the bolt and center the string in the barrel, assuming you have good eyes.

Here is my answer, as was posted earlier in this thread, and directly addresses your concerns.

Good point. Most of my rifles have a pic rail, and I have a pic rail level. I'll check mine next time I get them out. Thanks for the reminder!

Yeah, it will stop all those "etch-a-sketch" adjustments when ya just want to dial up 2 mils, LOL.