In an earlier post I made a comment about the Flat Line Ops Scout level that is attached to my SWFA scope. Today I discovered that having your rifle level absolutely makes a difference down range. In theory I already knew this, but today I got to experience it for myself.
While out in the hills shooting at some far away steel, I snapped a couple of rather poor quality pictures which illustrates the results. The terrain I was on was so slanted and skewed that I felt like I was shooting in the M.C. Escher picture above. I had to put faith in my equipment, in this case the Flat Line Scout level to keep the rifle straight.
Here is a picture of the Scout Level showing that the rifle is pretty well straight. And below is what my sight picture actually looks like.
850 yards
That looks all kinds of jacked up doesn't it? Not only is the target itself hung a little crooked, the ground it is on is obviously sloping; AND the ground I am laying in is sloping as well. There were a couple of shots where I lined the cross hairs up on the target all pretty like without thinking about it and completely missed. That meant that my rifle was canted at an angle to fit my perception of what "straight" looked like, and that threw the shot off by at least a mil. Which according to this chart by Millet Sights, means the impact was at least 30 inches off. Solely because of a canted rifle.
If you are into long distance shooting in field conditions, then adding a level to your weapon system may be a prudent investment. Rough terrain and environmental conditions can deceive your senses; sometimes it is nice to have a fixed point upon which you can depend.
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