Rifle cant

IMHO.......level the scope reticle so the poi "up close" and "far away" is in vertical alignment when you're shooting "naturally".



What has worked well for me and my HW95 and R9 break barrel springers is to support the gun on a cardboard box with cut notches, place a "known good torpedo level" on the flat of the barrel pivot block, then rotate the scope till the vertical crosshair lines up with a hanging string..........





This has pretty much solved my "poi left at close & right at far" issues I had when I aligned the reticle by "eyeballing" through the scope.

I have the same thing on some of my guns. I think it's to do with how they naturally shoulder. Also I find the things you look at through the scope can give a false impression of cant.

If you've properly leveled everything as you say (only thing I can think of going wrong is if there is a bit of play in the cocking lever allowing it to droop a bit?) then everything should be perfect. Setting it up to 'feel' upright will undoubtedly give you issues as the barrel, action and scope are in fixed relationship, so there is only one 'true' position of alignment.

Try shouldering your gun normally and aim at your vertical plumb line. You'll probably find it all lines up great and suddenly the feeling of cant is less. I suppose if feeling whether the gun is level was easy, we wouldn't have need of bubble levels, electronic levels etc!

I had similar concerns. I bought a clamp-on external scope level which clamps to the outside of the scope tube. This way, when out hunting on irregular terrain, I can tell if my airgun is being held level. There is a tendency to "judge" level by your terrain, and when you are on the side of a mountain, level can be difficult to judge. 

Some shooters level their rifle scope to a natural shouldering position, in other words they hold the gun shouldered comfortably (canted) bringing the rifle scope to their eye naturally not canting their head to the rifle and leveling the scope in that position. look up David Tubb arguably the best most winning off hand shooter in the world. BTW Chuck from this form has his wildcat set up like that and taught me that trick.

Sup with the double post ?

I'll stick with my answer here:

https://www.airgunnation.com/topic/canting/

And I will add , as I did used to shoot competition this way, 

cant does NOT matter, IF you cant exactly the same everytime - which is very hard to do do but you might get close





John

John, I completely agree with you. I know plenty of people (including me) that cant their rifle when competing. 

I even saw a Mac1 USFT which was made deliberately with the dovetails on the receiver and scope canted to one side!

Wondered WHAT THE ??? HOW THE ???

I asked that person how can it shoot straight at various ranges "CANTED" that way and the simple reply was " THIS RIFLE CAN!" (Not CANT).

CA

https://www.pyramydair.com/blog/2007/08/usft-rifle-part-3/

From the above............

"A natural hold needs a gun built on an angle
The USFT is built in a canted configuration, so the seated shooter doesn’t have to adjust his body. It did make aligning the scope more of a challenge, since I normally align the vertical reticle with the receiver. On this rifle, the receiver is offset to the side until I am seated and holding the gun properly. The scope had to be aligned with me in the seated position. I still don’t have it exactly right; but, once I do, the scope will force me to shoot without a cant. There is no problem in the offhand position, either, because the reticle of the scope aligns you to level. The pistol grip is canted to the right side for a more natural grip angle. Plus, my rifle’s grip has a target palm shelf for stability."

Gravity pulls in only one direction: straight down. It doesn't matter about where the stock is placed. It does matter that the scope is directly above the barrel.

Just a thought. Do you wear glasses? My scope reticle and view looks different when I'm wearing my glasses. I do not wear them when I'm shooting and since I do not hunt this isn't a problem for me.

Gravity does only pull in one direction, however due to the loopy trajectory and poor BC of those hollow lead badminton birdies called pellets there is more to it than "scope directly over the bore.

When I zero my HW95 at 30 yards the muzzle is actually tilted up so the pellet rises from about 1 5/8" below the line of sight, to the "first zero" at about 17 yards, to about 1/4" above the line of sight at 25 yards, then it falls to the 30 yard zero, then continues falling to about 1 1/2" low at 50 yards. If the gun is canted then the pellet will be "fly to the side" while gravity is pulling straight down...........



Anywhoo.......years ago when living in West Virginia I did a "cant test" at a short 11 yard shooting distance in the basement and proving that my .177 R9 (zero'd at 30 yards) did indeed shift the poi laterally at 11 yards when the gun was deliberately tilted one way and then the other. Never needed to "cant test" at longer distances since the result would only be greater.