What do you use to level the reticle?

I use the wheeler leveling tools . I use the two that wheeler produces . Level your rifle then level the scope and tighten everything down while holding everything still
I place mine in a Tipton gun vise and secure it. I use 2 levels on the mounting rail, 3 if there is a flat spot on the receiver. Once leveled I use the wheeler level for the barrel and set it. Now I know if the gun is bumped, I can look at the level on the barrel and reposition it. I set a level on the turret and tighten down the screws. . Every scope I have ever mounted will move when tightening the screws. Tighten them Katty corner. Sometimes I have to Lapp the rings. On some scopes it's taken me an hour to do this.
 
I those leveling kits the level is so small I wonder if it even works...my method that has proven to work for me time and time again.

Place a 3' piece of painters tape on the wall as level as you can.
Take a 3' level and draw a level line on that tape with a sharpie.
Put the rifle on a bipod and back up as far as you can an place the rifle on a level floor of course.
Use the line on the wall to level your reticle and tighten.
 
If you don't align the scope with the rifle barrel, there will be a significant POI shift with long range targets. Your impact will be either left or right.
Yes, alignment with bore will make a difference at long range but no matter up to about 300 yards on big game depending on how far off level of course.
 
I have bought many different tools and still had a slanted reticle on a couple of scopes.
I have the Level Level tool from Wheeler,the Professional level system also from Wheeler I believe and have used the plum bob system and still have a couple slightly slanted reticles.
I just bought a new tool that fixed all my slightly off reticles and was only 19.95.
So far I have fixed all my slightly off reticles and a couple of friends with the same problem.
Has anyone used this before?
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07MC71PC4/?tag=lrhmag19-20
I hope all scopes I mount will be as easy as my new mounted Athlon Ares BTR 2.5-15x50.
Let me know if there are better tools out there.
Old Rooster
I use the Wheeler Engineering professional scope mounting kit, and have never had a problem. All of my scopes are perfectly level. I also use an anti-cant level on my rifles.
 
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You have the tolerances of the bore to barrel, receiver, rail, scope rings, reticle aligned to bottom of scope tube. It was be curious to see when the bottom of the scope is leveled per the rail how far off the reticle ends up from the bore. I honestly don't know the poi shift of the reticle being off center from the bore. I'll have to do some math after a few beers tonight when that stuff makes more sense.

It most certainly is important to ensure the reticle isn't canted versus gravity which is taken care of by running bubble level mounts.

That is exactly why part 1 of leveling device is mounted to the barrel and the part 2 to the scope. Regardless if the rail is off slightly, or the rings are off slightly, the crosshairs are squared to the rifles bore as best it can.

Where I sometimes run into issues is when torque is applied to the scope rings you can get slight shift and the level will show this immediately. It sometimes takes a few tries for everything to come together squared. I find the better quality matched style rings are much easier to square and center the scope, ie. Seekins, American Rifle Company, Vortex PMR, etc.

A reticle not being squared and level in my opinion is a waste of time when wanting to shoot any type of long range. Especially when using reticle holdovers for distance and holdoffs for doping wind.

I use the top of the line Wheeler set also.
 
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Plumb line to level the scope.
Level on the picatinny rail
And look at the actual rifle to verify if the picatinny rail is mounted level.

From there you level the scope with the Plum line.

A trick I do is use a level on a white piece of paper and make a cross hair.
 
If your reticle is level when you shoot, that's all that matters. I level my rail with gun in sling. Then laser level on wall about 20 feet away. Level the scope to that. Then the screw go on and level cap on rear.
I use laser levels as well...
Level a gun in a wise and level a reticle to a laser line on the wall, screw them in and then install a bubble level...
 
I have bought many different tools and still had a slanted reticle on a couple of scopes.
I have the Level Level tool from Wheeler,the Professional level system also from Wheeler I believe and have used the plum bob system and still have a couple slightly slanted reticles.
I just bought a new tool that fixed all my slightly off reticles and was only 19.95.
So far I have fixed all my slightly off reticles and a couple of friends with the same problem.
Has anyone used this before?
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07MC71PC4/?tag=lrhmag19-20
I hope all scopes I mount will be as easy as my new mounted Athlon Ares BTR 2.5-15x50.
Let me know if there are better tools out there.
Old Rooster

I use the leveling tool you mentioned to confirm level with rifle bore.
Have used bar stock in the receive, once removing the bolt. This helps confirm that rail is plumb and correct. The follow direction on the wheeler level kit. Once level bubble is mounted to scope I'll reconfirm it to a plumb bob. All this not critical out 200-300 yard in my opinion but I believe it to be essential for the longer range.

if not plumb to Centerline of bore it will effect accuracy left to right and throw your Trajectory table off for elevation in the longer ranges.
 
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. All this not critical out 200-300 yard in my opinion but I believe it to be essential for the longer range.

This is true. Before the internet and even the 260 Remington, I learned this the hard way. Great load at 100, 200, things get a little wonky at 300 and 400 it's worse. This was with the old 300 Roy and recoil and $$ were making think real hard about a quick and correct solution. It was a canted reticle and remounting and leveling corrected the issue and opened my eyes. After re-visiting all my rifles I stepped it up to a whole nuther level in the prairie dog arena the next year.
 
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