How To Repair Ahabs Crosshairs Minestuck

The event of a canted telescopic verses a canted rifle...

This motion-picture show represents a canted rifle underneath a level scope. Yous're looking at the buttstock of the rifle, and on through the scope. The orangish circle is the judge location of the bore of the rifle. The blue dots represent the fall of the shots every bit they get downrange; they fall with gravity forth a line which is represented by the vertical crosshair in the scope.
What we must business concern ourselves with to understand this issue is the scope and the bullet path. When you lot dial the telescopic's erector to zilch for windage, you are substantially aligning it with the bullet path--not the barrel!
So if a scope is mounted slightly canted, but held level, the diameter of the canted burglarize would but exist off to the side a fraction of an inch (perhaps one/16 to one/viii inch) underneath. It would look something like this:

Is information technology of import that the bore isn't 100 pct underneath the scope's vertical crosshair? Actually, no.
Think nigh it this way:
If yous take the telescopic dialed to a perfect 100 yard zero with one particular load, and then yous switch to another load, you'll likely note that your windage zero will change. Has the scope moved? No. Has the butt inverse? No. Only the direction that the barrel is throwing the shots has changed. Barrels, past their very nature, throw shots hither, there, and yonder. And so you must dial the scope's erector to follow the general path of the new load to get your zero. This may have the telescopic'due south centerline well away from the boreline--but that's not what's important. Bullet path and boreline are two different things.
Yous see, the telescopic's erector is never really aligned with the diameter of the rifle to begin with--it is aligned with the path of whatever bullets y'all are setting the zero for.
What I'm saying is that you lot can have a slightly canted telescopic, with the barrel underneath at, say, v:30 and so long as the scope is held level, the shots volition still fall parallel with the vertical crosshair.

In the top image, at that place is the platonic situation where the scope's vertical crosshair perfectly disects the fall of the shots.
In the 2d image, the scope is mounted with a slight deceit, but since the scope is being held level, this means that the rifle bore is off by a chip underneath it. Information technology's at 5:30 rather than 6 o'clock. Note how the shots fall just slightly to the right of the vertical crosshair. Groups forming downrange would probably never indicate that the five:30 rifle deceit even existed, as these shots would but exist off to the right of the vertical crosshair a tiny fraction of an inch.
What if you layed the rifle on its side?
If yous laid the rifle on its side (and mounted the scope upright, with the elevation turret upward peak),

...this would of form put the scope most 1.5 inches to the left of the diameter. If yous zeroed the scope for the shots to fall dead on at 100 yards and so yes, y'all would accept an angular relationship with bullet path and line of sight. You'd only be zeroed for 100 yards. From the rifle to the target, you'd begin with near 1.v inches of mistake, slowly correcting until you got to 100 yards, then across 100 yards your shots would deviate farther and farther from the windage cypher you had at 100 yards.
However, if, as is shown in the drawing immediately higher up, you were to take into account that i.5 inch difference with the "sideways rifle," and you lot dialed the telescopic so that the shots fell 1.5 inches to the right of the crosshair intersection at 100 yards, these shots would stay only 1.5 inches correct of the line of sight all the manner downrange (air current factors and such notwithstanding).
In another possible scenario, yous could simply take this sideways burglarize and punch the windage zip to be right at m yards. Then, yous'd be off a little less than ane.v inches at 100 yards, and the bullet would begin "endmost in" on the windage--and the closer the bullet got to m yards, the more it would close the 1.5 inch gap. At 1000 yards, the bullet would cross the line of sight, and then begin deviating in the contrary management, and past 2000 yards, it would be about i.5 inches to the other side. Plain, this 1.5 inches would non be much of a factor at the longer ranges.
So, with the slightly cant-mounted (but held level) telescopic, you're not going to exist off anywhere near 1.5 inches all the way downrange. It'll be more similar 1/eight" or so--and wouldn't even exist noticed in a 1 MOA group size.
So remember: It's bullet path, bullet path, bullet path--not the barrel that you're aligning the telescopic with.

The above is a pinnacle view, looking down at the rifle and telescopic, and bullet path(s). The blue expanse would represent the scope'south range of WINDAGE alignment; in other words it can be dialed to windage zero anywhere in that blue zone. The orangish lines correspond the various paths different load recipes might cause the bullets to wing. You can dial the scope to align with whatsoever of these paths.
All that really matters is that the bullets be released relatively close to the vertical crosshair and all will be well.
When the barrel releases the bullet, the bullet goes up, then it comes downward. It does this regardless of where the butt is in relation to the scope. All you are doing with the scope windage adjustments is aligning the erector to be closely parallel with that bullet'due south path. The cardinal words here are CLOSELY PARALLEL, and once the telescopic's windage is set to be parallel with the bullet'south path, you volition not take to alter windage for diverse ranges--it'll stay the same--fifty-fifty if the barrel is at v:xxx or six:xxx, or even 5 o'clock or vii o'clock underneath the scope. You might get lucky and accept your bullet fall perfectly along the vertical crosshair of your telescopic, just that'll be the exception; not the dominion. Chances are, if you could somehow determine the "perfect bullet" path, it would be 1/8" or even more, to one side or the other of the vertical crosshair. Big deal, though--such a minor amount of fault won't be noticed on the targets.
The problem that some of us may take in agreement this is nosotros are assuming that bullets eminate in a direct line from the bore of the barrel--which they do not. Some bores are not even drilled direct through the butt, so you could have a scope centered "perfectly" over the butt and still have a "canted bore." Only relax. Hold your scope level for each shot and y'all'll still shoot just fine.
I have a ScopLevel on a Bushnell Aristocracy telescopic. The level is mounted to the tube of the telescopic, and I move that scope from rifle to burglarize equally I exam dissimilar guns and different loads. It's currently on my recently rebarreled Remington 788, and information technology is not perfectly straight with the receiver. I noticed this when I put the rifle on a bench at our rifle range. However, since I began testing that rifle, I take striking varmints at 200 yards, 540 yards, and 755 yards by making elevation changes simply. I did not make windage changes for these shots considering the wind wasn't at effect. A couple weeks ago, again, without touching the windage turret, I dialed in my top for 1050 yards and shot at this target:

While the grouping has moved a tiny fleck to the correct, that is to be expected at such long ranges equally the bullet's spin causes it to movement slightly aside.
Paralleling the scope's line of sight with the bullet's path is really no big deal.
Continue the scope level, and don't worry so much virtually whether it's perfectly direct up and down over the bore. It's prissy, yes, to have a straight telescopic. Just if your scope is slightly canted in the mount, just level the crosshairs as you lot normally would, and you'll have no trouble at any range.
One final illustration, which I hope volition bring it all together...