by Simple is good if it works. Cheap and simple is even better. In the video below, Aram von Benedikt of Outdoor Life shows how to use common, everyday tools to get your rifle scope’s crosshairs perfectly vertical.
The tools for von Benedikt’s method would cost you less than $10 if you had to buy them new. This includes $2.25 for the plumb bob, $3.98 for the level, and about $3 for a small mill bastard file. The first two items were priced at Lowe’s. I just paid $2.95 last weekend at a local surplus store for a Kobalt 6″ file.
Compare this with the Wheeler Engineering Retical Leveling System. It is a very nice tool but it costs $49.99 from Brownells with the price at Amazon.com
being a bit less.
So, you can go fancy with a purpose built tool or you can go simple with tools that have multiple uses around the house. The choice is yours.
Good tip and video.
I bought a Wixey digital angle gauge some years ago for woodworking, and have used that to level scopes.
Place the digital angle gauge on any flat part of the weapon and zero, then move the gauge to your scope and adjust as needed to get zero. Also use the gauge for adjusting round tube red dot sights, there are no cross hairs, but you still need level so adjustments move along the x and y axis.
Harbor Freight has a clone, and Amazon lists the Wixey, and a number of other brands of digital angle gauges.
And strangely enough, you can also use the tool as the manufacturers intended and set the angles of table and miter saws.
John in Philly