DISCLAIMER:
I'm by no means a master shooter/sniper. What advice I may offer comes from my personal experience (poor man's improvisation). With that said...
ADVICE ON LEVELING THE SCOPE:
If you have a vise, a magazine block, small household level, and your scope ring wrench, you're almost there.
Lock the mag block in the vise a little loose, and the scope in the mount just barely snug, so you can adjust the rifle's / scope's cant / leveling as needed. Use the level across the top of the upper to make sure that the rifle is as flat/level as you can, check the level along the bore axis AND side to side, so you take out any cant before mounting the scope. Once you have that done, tighten the hell out of the vise, so when you mount the scope+mount, you don't end up throwing it off-level.
Once you have the scope+mount on the rifle, check the levels again, and this time check the level against the top of the elevation turret. Alternately, if you have a helper, point the rifle at a wall, and have a helper hold a level against it, so you can turn the scope so your reticle is level.
Tighten slowly (both the vise and the scope ring screws), and re-check often. If you somehow manage to throw something off, you don't have that far to backtrack.
ANOTHER IMPORTANT NOTE:
Once you go zero, start with a close target and work your way out to whatever you want your zero range to be.
I spent all of about $0 on tools I didn't already have, and took maybe 20 minutes tightening things down. The fun part was having a buddy spot for me, then took turns once we got it dialed it nice and tight.
As always, YMMV, good luck, and post pics.