...on a Rem. 700. How do I get it *perfectly* level?

Level the rifle first. Use a level across part of the rifle you know is horizontal. Sandbag it in place. Put the scope in the rings and aim at a string with a plumb bob hanging off the end of it. Align the center cross hair with the string. Check the rifle level again, then the center hair. Torque it all down.

with a bubble level or keep messing with it until looks good for your eyes.

Use one of the tools, such as the one by Segway Industries or B-Square for this purpose. Poor man's way: hang some paper on the wall and draw some cross hair looking lines with a magic marker. Place your rifle in at least a semi-rigid rest and look through the scope and align it with your lines.

I'll put in a second recommendation for the Segway Industries Reticle Leveler® - http://[url]http://www.segway-industries.com/[/url] I used to spend way too much time dicking with scopes trying to get it level, only to start fiddling with it again at the range. And, of course, then I had to rezero it again. But with the Segway I get it set level in seconds when I mount it the first time and never touch the scope again. This little thing works great!!

Thanx for the info. I was wondering about that Reticle Leveler, saw it in the Natchez catalog, but didn't know if it worked all that great. Now I need a rest! Yes, I'm new to the bolt action rifle.

I wasted more time and dollars trying to get reticles aligned than I want to remember. I mean tried Bushnell's thing and a bunch of shadetree stuff that basically didn't work. Then I found the Segway thing and squared up all my rifles. Must have done a dozen in one evening. From AR15's to AR50 and a bunch of hunting rifles. What was funny was seeing just how far off some of my other efforts were. Came to the conclusion I must be cross-eyed.

How critical is having the crosshairs level?

[b]Ghettobalster[/b]- If you're in or near OKC, I can help.

Firepower, from what I know, an improperly aligned reticle causes the POI to chance at longer distances. Jim_Dandy, I might take ye up on that offer. Let me get a Reticle Leveler first, need one anyway if they work as good as I'm hearing.

Having the reticle's crosshairs level with the rest of the rifle will keep your rifle's groups consistent as range to target increases. The farther the scope's centerline is from the bore centerline means a small misalignment of the reticle will cause your rifle's groups to move off windage zero as range to target increases. My AR50 has 3.5" from bore centerline to scope centerline. When shooting at 1000 yards a small misalignment can move my group's windage zero several inches. My long range AR15's scope has a large bell and it sits high off the rifle too. Keeping the scope close to the rifle helps minimize the problem. The thing that's frustrating is how the misalignment can cause your groups to move from one side of windage centerline to the other as range increases. If you're shooting at 100 yards all day reticle levelling is nice but not necessary. If you shoot at different distances and if those distances can be large then it's more important.

What I was intimating, is that I have one if you'd like to see how it works before you spend any money and I'm sure that my Dad has a B-Square reticle leveler over at my folks' house that I can borrow. The B-Square is the cheaper of the two, but it's pretty well limited to bolt guns only.

This is the B-Square tool. The retail is $10.95, probably cheaper from Graf's or other B-Square distributors. [img]http://www.reliablehost.com/bsquare/media/bt1001.gif[/img]