scope cant

[crsteven]

If I hold the rifle in its natural position for me I assume it's best if the cross hairs be vertical in reference to that? I have a bubble anti-cant device so I can check level that way. It's mounted on the scope and I can see the bubble above the scope. I'm just wondering if I am missing anything in reference to this? I could go the level, level, level route and put the bubble on the cross hair. Just wondering what others do. My concern is that I'm throwing shots due to cant.

[fwt1712]

I think some canting of the rifle is, for most people, expected and a good thing - as it allows for a more natural fit of stock to your shoulder and encourages a more natural hold on the pistol grip. However I think that our eyes want to see the cross hairs in a level position i.e. vertical and horizontal i.e. it is more natural as we are accustomed to setting levels relative to the horizon and will do this automatically and consistently (and should mean that you don't need to cross-reference a separate bubble device and give you one less thing to worry about). This means that you should not worry if your scope isn't 'square on' to your rifle. For a right handed shooter this means that the vertical crosshairs will be slightly towards a '1 o'clock' (and for a left hander it will be towards 11 o'clock) position relative to what you would think of as a centre line going through the middle of your rifle. Regards Nigel.

[Innocent]

Shoot what fits you..cant or no cant. I have borrowed many rifles with very strong cants, the owners shoot them well, I do not do well with any cant but that is a personal preference to me. The scopes can be adjusted to deal with a cant.

Innocent Mary

[Jason]

As mentioned, I shoot with my rifle in the most natural position and have my scope set to have the horizontal crosshair level with the rifle in that position. Having the scope level with the rifle and therefore not level in an offhand position leads to much more complication scope adjustment between animals and no actual point of reference against the targets. Assuming the rails (if rails are used) that the targets are on are level, I verify that I'm not unintentionally canting my rifle by verifying that my horizontal crosshair is parallel to the rail that the target is sitting on. Cant can cause quite a point of impact change out at turkeys and rams.

[shakes]

Thats what I've heard Jason. Keith for example has a lot cant to his rifle and I aked him about it. He has to adjust the windage half a minute to a minute sometimes from turkeys to rams. I set my scope up so the horizontal is as close to hoizontal with the rifle as possible and adjust my shooting position to that. I've thought about putting some cant to the scope to see if that would improve my scores being in a more natural postion but havent yet. I quess it's to much to remember for me to have to adjust the windage back and forth, up and down is allready difficult enough

[lone ringer]

Shakes, if you cant the scope in relation to the rifle do it only if it feels more comfortable. If you look at my rifles they all look like the cross hairs lean a bit to the right which is corrected when I bring the comb of the rifle a bit left towards my face so it actually looks right on or straight for me but for others that hold different may not. If you hold the same way when you sight in and when you shoot offhand there is no reason to change the windage but you have to make sure the horizontal cross hair is parallel to the grownd, rails, etc. at all times- I have in the past had to put a few clicks to one side or another when shooting rams but had nothing to do with canting the scope it was more due to the difference in ram bullet weight vs short range lighter bullets on that particular barrel.

[shakes]

thanks Tony. I'm going to try and see if that works for me. I've got plenty of down time to try it out.

[Hawk-1]

as long as your scope is level to the ground, you can cant the rifle any direction without having to add windage. If your barrel is straight the bullet will never know the difference. Even if the gun is held in the natural straight up position we adjust our stances to keep it there while we shoot. One could turn the gun upside down or 90 degrees as long as the scope were level to the ground, and .... you are good to go.