I have nikon monarch that I bought about 6 or 7 years ago. It was used on my savage 220 one season for Iowa deer hunting and has sat ever since. I sighted it in that year and for some reason during opening weekend all my shots back boned deer. I was hinting out of a ladder stand so maybe the slugs tracked high? I figured the scope adjustments shifted? I never re checked my zero. I removed the optic last week and put it on my 300 RUM. I shot some ladder tests at the range last week with it. I took it out today to sight in the best grouping load from the previous session. My first shot went a good 4" high and left. I thought I was dead center from my last week’s adjustments so I was a little confused. I did have some cracked case necks last week so I might have had a flier on the last shot??? Well, after my first shot thst went high today I adjusted my scope down and right. Next shot I hit 4" low and right. I adjusted back to my original starting point and load tested 4, 3 shot groups of a different bullet and powder combo. They all were starting loads with different powders loaded around 2900 fps along with a Seirra 180 grain RN jacketed bullet. Best group was MOA so nothing spectacular with the loads I tested. When I was done testing I finished zeroing in my 3100 fps .3" nosler partition gold bullet load. It hit dead center but high. I kept adjusting it down. When it tracked my shots went diagonally to the right . I numbered the shots. Number 2 was 8 clicks down, #3 was 2 more clicks down(I tried 2 shots that touched) . I then clicked 2 to the left which was shot #4. It tracked high. I went 2 more clicks left. You can see it tracked diagonally high again. So my question is...is my scope not perfectly horizontal and vertical causing this? The crosshairs look perfectly level(guess not?). The barrel was really hot when I was sighting it in as well. My barrel is free floated and wears an HS prescion stock torqued to 65 inch pounds. It is the factory remington pencil barrel. My rings and bases are torqued with a fat wrench. Any ideas why my scope is tracking at a diagonal line?
My group from the other day....