By David E. Petzal

I’d guess that of all the scoped rifles I’ve handled, probably ninety percent have the crosshairs out of vertical alignment. The reason is that when you look through the scope you have your head canted, and when the vertical crosshair looks straight to your crooked head, it ain’t. Crooked scopes cause you to cant the rifle, which causes the bullet to fly to the right or the left of the axis of the bore, which means you’re going to miss right or left when you shoot at 250 yards or more.

Over the years I’ve seen various gadgets that purport to enable you to mount the damned scope straight. A couple of days ago, however, I learned about a way to do the job that is sublime in its simplicity and requires only a carpenter’s spirit level. Here’s how it works:

By David E. Petzal

One of the problems with something the size of the SHOT Show (This year’s set another record for size.) is that a great many deserving but non-glamorous items get lost in the herd. Here are two that deserve your attention and your money.

One of my greatest regrets as I shuffle off this mortal coil is that I’ve kept poor records of my hunting trips, or no records. If you’d like to end up at the end of the trail in better shape, record-wise, I suggest you get hold of Rite in the Rain’s Big Game Journal Kit. This weatherproof spiral-binder pad (and they are weatherproof, too, by God; I’ve used RiR pads for years) has listings for 35 items of information plus a blank reverse for any random intel you care to include.