Is there a benefit to canting? Seems like it would introduce error.

I prefer laying my cheek on the stock and using that pressure as part of my hold, although there are limits to what is comfortable. Standard BKL's and medium height Burris Z-Rings usually fit pretty well - anything lower is a strain to get a sight picture through. A couple of years ago I had a pair of Marvin Pearson rings on loan that were, somehow, perfect, but would you believe the owner wanted them back?!

Coming from a position shooter background, canting is part of building a quality position. Of course, there are limits to everything. Like i said before, build your position and then set the rifle up to that position. By keeping the scope reticle level, sight in that way, and all if not most of the error is negated.

So, are you canting the rifle on the bench when you sight in?

If you cant your rifle when in your natural hold position, I turn the scope in the opposite direction and level it against leveled magic marker cross hairs on my basement wall that is 40 feet away. I repeat the raising and positioning of my rifle hold until I feel comfortable that the cross hairs on the scope repeat against the cross hairs on the wall, then tighten the scope rings. I then repeat my positioning hold process several times to make sure all is in alignment.

You could probably use one leveled vertical line to do the same thing indoors or outdoors. My lines on the basement wall are 3 feet in length as an example.

very true Tee. When I sight in, I use a front rest only. I put my front hand under the rifle between the rifle and the rest. This way i have the support to sight in and yet hold the rifle as close as possible to my offhand position. You also get a truer sight in. This type of sightin is more important in Hi-Power as there are longer distances involved, where a slight difference in hold makes a big difference at 500 meters. At smallbore distances there is less change, but this is a procedure I personally trust. Hope this helps.

Thanks for the good information. I'll have to see if canting helps me, I have a minimal cheek weld right now.

Tancred

With a minimal cheek weld the cant will help. I shot my CZ Silhouette with a cant and it most definantly helped to improve my cheek weld.

don't forget depending on how much you cant the rifle you might have to adjust your windage even with smallbore.
my cant when i used to put in the rifle was about 30 degrees off of plum so there was about a minute of right windage i had to add between chix and rams

shootnchef wrote:don't forget depending on how much you cant the rifle you might have to adjust your windage even with smallbore.
my cant when i used to put in the rifle was about 30 degrees off of plum so there was about a minute of right windage i had to add between chix and rams

Which is why I try to hold level. The nerd in me wants to add a bubble level to the scope mount for improved repeatability, but realistically that's just one more distraction.

shootnchef wrote:don't forget depending on how much you cant the rifle you might have to adjust your windage even with smallbore.

If you cant your scope so it is still level when the gun is canted, the point would be moot, right?

LOL, you guys are killing me. Don't worry about it. Just place the dot or crosshair in the middle of the animal and pull the trigger. If your sight settings are right, you'll be a master shooter. That hold will more than makeup than the error of canting. Just practice more.

tenx9 wrote:LOL, you guys are killing me. Don't worry about it. Just place the dot or crosshair in the middle of the animal and pull the trigger. If your sight settings are right, you'll be a master shooter. That hold will more than makeup than the error of canting. Just practice more.

I hate when he's right.

Yep, except that such simplistic statements don't really hold up in the real world. It's true that if you have a good rifle, scope, and ammo combo that you are using and you have good scope settings and you judge wind/mirage correctly when you break the shot in the center of the animal every time then you'll shoot a master score. If it were that easy, though, no one would want the shoot the match because there would be no challenge to it.

Now, here in the real world of silhouette shooting, one of the keys to getting the steadiest hold possible is fitting the rifle and position to the body of each individual shooter. There are very few of us where the ideal position is with the rifle absolutely plumb, but many shoot with the rifle that way because that's the way that the scope was mounted on the rifle. My personal cant on my smallbore rifle is currently only about 4 degrees, but I can definitely tell the difference in comfort and movement of that dot versus having the scope mounted plumb so I have to hold the rifle that way. As Chat said, even with the scope mounted to account for my position, I still usually put in one click of windage at turkeys and two at rams with 1/4 minute clicks on my Weaver T24 scope.

You think you guys got problems....try keeping all these things in proper alignment on a rifle that is being shot by a fast growing 13 year old who is a master class shooter and can tell you when the scope is 1/2 bubble off plumb or her head is a few degrees out of kilter...

Kitty