wonkey eye, help!

[chip]

I have recently realised that for the past two and a half years i have been shooting with my rifle(s) canted to the right.

The scope is set up true, as i always use a plumb line and level when fitting.

When i take my shooting position looking through the scope i use the vertical line to judge that i am holding the rifle straight. But it turns out that what my eye/brain is telling me is straight is actually canted to the right.

And when i hold it at what is proven straight it looks canted about ten degrees to the left.

I discovered this recently because i have never shot with the level in situ until the recent purchase of a steyr.
At first i thought the scope had shifted. So i hung a plumb line out at 30 yards down the range and when i checked the scope the vertical line of the reticule ran true down the plumb line with the level centered but both the the reticule and the line looked canted about ten degrees to the left

I stood up straight and looked down range, plumb looked straight, looked back through the scope, plumb leaning to the left.
Stood up straight again, looked straight.
This coupled with my knowledge of the laws of gravity confirmed that the plumb must indeed be straight and that it is my eye that is wonkey when my head is positioned looking through the scope.

Hope that made sense.
Is there any thing i can do about this or should i accept i am optically challenged

[Pod]

Odd! Could be an ear issue - might be worth a visit to the docs.

You could try higher mounts so that your head is more vertical when the rifle is shouldered

[chip]

So it is just me then

The ear thing does make sense, my mates mother has the worst sense of balance ever due to a problem with her ears.

[Loki_79]

Is there any thing i can do about this or should i accept i am optically challenged

Maybe walk around with your head tilted 10° to the right all the time?

Or you could try to always cant your rifle to the left (from your point of view) so that it is actually straight. Ocassionally check the real angle - otherwise you may end up overcompensating once your brain gets used to it! Also, look out for things that you know are level/vertical like fence posts and distant water surfaces to check your alignment whenever you can.

[Matt C.]

I won't try to insult your ability, but what is you eye relief looking like? By this I mean the veiw down the scope being completely central to the image. I know when I take a bad shot it is probably because I did not take a moment to check my head/eye was perfectly central behind the scope. If this thought helps, so be it, if not I will get may coat...

Take care, Voldemort

[chip]

It is a bit of a strange one.
Earlier i sat the rifle down on its bipod on a bench with it pretty level, .
crouched down with my head just behind the butt pad looking straight down the scope with my head straight, obviously at that distance i was looking at a mainly black sight picture, but i could clearly see the ret and it was bang on.

But when i then put my head in the correct position the ret was canted to the left as described earlier.

A couple of years ago an rfd mounted a scope for me and i argued with him that he had fitted it crooked although he said it was spot on, and after ten minutes of argueing he agreed to turn it to where i thought it should be
whilst still protesting that it would be wrong (sorry chris).

I shall investigate further tomorrow.

[jimcam]

Surely if you've been happy shooting this way I dont think you need to worry.If your comfortable with it and still hit what your aiming at SEEMPLES!

[Space Cadet]

It is a bit of a strange one.
Earlier i sat the rifle down on its bipod on a bench with it pretty level, .
crouched down with my head just behind the butt pad looking straight down the scope with my head straight, obviously at that distance i was looking at a mainly black sight picture, but i could clearly see the ret and it was bang on.

But when i then put my head in the correct position the ret was canted to the left as described earlier.

A couple of years ago an rfd mounted a scope for me and i argued with him that he had fitted it crooked although he said it was spot on, and after ten minutes of argueing he agreed to turn it to where i thought it should be
whilst still protesting that it would be wrong (sorry chris).

I shall investigate further tomorrow.

He He maybe you should go back to the RFD, tell him the customer is most certainly NOT always right & next time don't protest, just ignore you & do it his way.

Seriously tho mate, once I have set my scopes up to what I am certain is level, they always look very canted when I look through them later on.

[Stormdancer]

This is odd as I am having the same problem
Scope is a Bushnell Legend,mount it straight but when I shoulder the rifle and try to keep the rifle straight the cross-hairs are canted right. the only way I can get a straight the cross-hair when shouldered is to cant the scope slightly when fitting it.going to give it another go tonight after work. recently I have been pulling shots to the right too,its driving me bonkers!

[RobF]

To be fair, what I think is level is often a couple of degrees out... more if the target isn't level.

Your inner position tells you your cant, and your eye just normally goes along for the ride because it's not that good at judging angles without a frame of reference, and it's fooled if that reference is wrong... or if they'res an optical illusion at hand.

That's why I fit a spirit level and now make sure I use it.

Don't know if you can do that, and you're not allowed one in HFT.

What you can do is perhaps adjust the butt so it twists to sit upright in your shoulder naturally... that does help.

[POK!]

It is a bit of a strange one.
Earlier i sat the rifle down on its bipod on a bench with it pretty level, .
crouched down with my head just behind the butt pad looking straight down the scope with my head straight, obviously at that distance i was looking at a mainly black sight picture, but i could clearly see the ret and it was bang on.

But when i then put my head in the correct position the ret was canted to the left as described earlier..

If you repeat this experiment and slowly tilt your head to the right (from behind gun) you will see the + hair rotate in the opposite direction. It's an optical illusion, though IME some scopes suffer more than others (Simmons pro-air = very noticeable, Burris FF II = no discernible difference). I think this causes many shooters to cant the rifle leading to crossover etc.

[Kingplinker]

Poor eye relief and a bad position on the cheek piece could also hamper you , I have terrible problems using a gun without an adjustable cheekpiece unless its tailored to my needs .

hth

Dave

[Raygun]

Swap your head round.

It sometimes works with mounts.



ATB
Ray.

[harricook]

Hi Chip

You are not far away - what about getting yourself down to the shooting opticians based at Bisley ?

Roy
.

[chip]

Maybe this is something i have learned as the shooting ground (range)where i do 99% of my shooting is banked, a couple of feet higher on the left to the right over a thirty five yard distance.

I never really noticed this till the other day.
So whether i have been subconsciously influenced by the ground level or maybe due to the uneven ground the knock down/knock up targets (bolted to blocks sat on the ground) are slightly leaning to the right and i have been tilting the scope to the right slightly as they are my point of reference.

My worry was that when doing HFT that i may be losing the odd point due to this. But as long as the target is on flat ground and straight and i position my cross hair accordingly it will not be an issue.

If there are any course setters out there if they could deliberately place some of there longer targets out at a slight angle and let me know if they get more splitters that day.

Better still if they have such a high turn out they have two run the comp in to sessions maybe they could make the alterations after the first session and tell me whether more plates were scored on said pegs on the second session over the first In the name of research of course.