Which way round does an angled scope rail go?

[Quarters]

I think it should slope down towards the muzzle. But I can't get my head around it.

Help!

[Swamp Donkey]

Yep.

[WelshShooter]

Yep that's right. By using a sloped rail you want more elevation for long range. So to make the barrel point upwards more you need to have the scope reticle pointing more downwards.

[ozone]

.

Yes as the others have said, the rail slopes to the barrel muzzle.
This brings the scope down at the front and therefore raises the
barrel, which gives the extra elevation.

I have just gone through all this my self when I had to adjust
my rifle to distances over 600 mtr.

regards

ozone

.

[Quarters]

Thanks for that. I was 99% sure but just wanted to check.

[Laurie]

Yes, the thicker / higher section should be at the rear so that the scope-tube taper sees the front end point slightly downwards in relation to the barrel. It's the relationship between line of sight (a straight line between what you're looking at through the scope tube), and the bore-line which is a straight line from the barrel.

If you had the scope mounted on a rear pivot and and a height adjustable front mount and started with the scope-tube and bore parallel, the best you get in terms of available elevation adjustment is half of the scope's 'click-range' - ie if it has 60-MOA of inbuilt adjustment you can expect 30-MOA to be available from a short-range zero. In practice, it's usually a bit less than half.

Zero the rifle rested on a bench or similar so the POA and POI coincide at whatever distance, say 100 yards, and then reduce the front mount height on your hypothetical taper-adjustable custom mounting system while the zeroed rifle / barrel remains at the same position, and the scope reticle will now sit lower on the paper below the previous aimimg mark (POA) / zeroed shot group. Let's say 20.9 inches below that point at 100 yards. If you fixed the adjustable mount at that setting vis a vis the barrel, and then re-aimed the rifle at the aiming mark, your next shot goes 20.5 inches high on the paper. To return to the POA, you now have to screw the elevation adjuster on the scope down enough to get the impact of subsequent shots (POI) 20.9 inches - 20-MOA as 1-MOA = 1.047" at exactly 100 yards - lower and back ontop the aiming mark. That is your new 100 yard zero and the scope turret setting is 20-MOA lower on the turret (assuming the adjuster is precisely accurate which is VERY unusual)

If the original zero setting was half way through the adjustment range with 30-MOA worth of clicks up and down available, it's now much closer to the fully screwed down, nil elevation setting with 10-MOA now available downwards, but 50-MOA upwards - enough adjustment to get the bullet onto a long-range target. Ideally, the long-range zero position is such that it is close to the half-way point in the adjustment range as that's also where one obtains the maximum amount of available windage adjustment, and also where the windage clicks should be most accurate. But that's a separate subject.

Also a separate subject is the interaction of the bullet path (a curved trajectory) with line of sight and bore-line (angle of departure). With the scope higher than the barrel, the bullet intially travels below the line of sight, crosses it somewhere short of 100 yards, flies higher than the sightline reaches its mid range trajkectory summit, drops back down and exactly matches the line of sight on the target.

[Quarters]

Thanks for your time Laurie.

Very informative!